Yasmin Mogahed – The Spiritual Significance of Ramadan

			I would like
		

			to set up another student that why they might have a strategy to solve anyway, simply agree 100 of
the time is any of the following. So, I have the typical job of two things. One is to speak over
wedding, and the other. And the other is to be what's in between you and his dog. So make dog for
me. And now most of them except you're fast, and you're sacrificing, I want to begin with a
headache. That
		

			is, it just makes me cry. also kind of cloud is so versatile. Now, most of times it says that every
single action that we do, He rewards us multiplied, like the reward is always multiplied, almost
nobody tells us is that the reward will be multiplied times 10, up to 700. And this is because of
the generosity and mercy of Allah subhanaw taala.
		

			But he says, with the exception of fasting, and this is the part that really touched me because he
says that for fasting, the reward is, is something else, like he puts fasting in a special category.
And I want you guys to reflect about that for a second that will also say that his mercy is so much
that he will he will multiply all the rewards from 10 to up to 700. But fasting the same way except
for fasting, right? That's special who said that reward is for me, that reward is with me. Why? Why
is fasting so special to us Coronavirus, listen to this, because Allah says because that human
beings gave up their desire for my sake. And that's powerful, that whenever we give up something for
		

			the sake of Allah Subhana Allah, it is so heavy in the scale, it is something so beloved to Allah
Subhana Allah. Why because of this thing called sacrifice, that sacrifices that powerful sacrifice.
Isn't that powerful? That it? It's your award is something that's infinite, that was part of that
that's special for me.
		

			Now, just recently, I read this, this is some article. And it was it was actually no, it was
actually a scientist, a psychologist. And he was saying that a lot of the studies that we did, about
how do we predict success, were completely off the mark. So what they had a lot of studies, looking
at children, trying to predict which children are going to be successful in the future. So they
looked at different aspects. They looked at different markers. And he found that most of them were
off the mark, for example, they looked at IQ, right? And they would look at IQ and say, okay, does
that predict success in the future. And they found that it actually doesn't, it doesn't necessarily
		

			predict success, they were children, or humans that had very high IQ. And they ended up being they
ended up, you know, kind of not not being successful in society. So he said that the only successful
test, there was only one successful test that really at that you could look at children, give them
this test, and it would help predict success in the future. And this is really fascinating. And that
success and that and that test is called the marshmallow test. I don't know anyone who studied
psychology probably learned this. But here's how it goes, you go to a kid, and you say, I can give
you a marshmallow. Right? Right now, immediately.
		

			Or you can wait two hours and I can give you two.
		

			You see. So now the child has been given a choice. I can either give you one marshmallow right now,
immediate gratification, immediate gratification, or you can wait two hours and I'll give you two.
And this is what they found, actually had a significant link to whether or not these children grow
up to be successful. It was the ability it was those children to have the ability to what they call
in psychology, delayed gratification, that they thought you know what?
		

			I want the marshmallow but if I impatient if I restrained myself and wait, and I delay that
gratification, I can't or and it was that muscle it was that ability to do that, that predicted
success in the future. And this is this dunya success right. Now let's focus on that for a second.
Reflect on that for a second. This concept of delayed gratification. That is
		

			Exactly what we're doing here in our mobile. That is exactly what fasting is. It's our ability to
say, You know what? Yes. I'm not going to eat just now. I'm going to sacrifice. I'm going to wait.
Yes, I want to eat. Yes, I'm thirsty. Yes, there's, you know, and many of us who are work, people
around us are eating, right. We're seeing people everywhere eating and drinking, we're not living in
a Muslim country. And yet, I say, No, I'm going to wait. I'm going to restrain myself, I'm going to
delay gratification. And Allah subhanaw taala rewards for this infinity. The prophets I sent him
said that film reward, or rather than joy, for the fasting person, there's two times of joy for the
		

			fasting person. The first is when they break their fast. Everybody knows how good that feels, right?
I mean, dates have never tasted better. Right? Um, you can eat a date any other time of the year.
And it doesn't taste the same right?
		

			Now,
		

			it doesn't taste the same, it actually tastes the same. And that's because there's a special joy to
breaking your fast at that moment of breaking the fast it's, it's so there's so much to join to
that.
		

			And the second and last part that it says is that when you meet a law, that's the second type of
jewelry. And so we are as believers, we are able to delay that gratification and as a result and as
a reward of that not only do we get success in this life, but success, ultimately infinite success
to hereafter. Now, when we talk about fasting,
		

			now, Mashallah, every year we do this, why are we doing this a lot somehow that it tells us in the
area that was recited, I mean, many of you have heard of Ganga medica and then put your body which
is the Alma chemical to vitamin D and the public O'Donoghue, Dr. Hope that all you who believe
fasting was prescribed upon you, as it was prescribed to those who came before you. So this first of
all, fasting isn't something new. Fasting has always been a spiritual tool. And those of you who
studied even other spiritual paths, will know that fasting is a part of it, that there are there are
other religions, many other religions that use fasting. Fasting has been prescribed upon you as it
		

			was prescribed to those who came before you. Why not?
		

			In order for you to grow in this muscle called the hook, in order for you to build taqwa. Now, what
is taqwa? Allah, here into the buffer say that we fast in order for us to build up on the One Stop.
		

			And I ask most people What? Their answer is going to be fearful. Right?
		

			Cool. That's not all. It is. And a lot of times when we hear the word fear,
		

			we have a certain connotation to the concept of fear. We think like, we fear our enemies. Why should
we fear someone we love? This is usually the thought that we have. And a lot of people can't
understand how you reconcile love and fear, right? Like, we love a love, right? Hopefully,
presumably, you would love a love. But some people don't like but I love the love Washington's fear
him. You know, where does it how do you? How do you reconcile between love and fear? And to answer
that, I just have to ask you one question. Think about the human being in your life that you love
the most. Think about the human being in your life that you love the most. Everybody thought of this
		

			person? Yes. Okay. Now I want you to think about
		

			how would you feel if that person told you one day, I never want to speak to you again.
		

			Or I never I never want to see you again.
		

			Or I am so angry with you that I'm cutting you off. Now. Everyone tells me what feeling does that
bring about? Anyone?
		

			fear, fear? And that is because love and fear are linked. That when you love someone, you fear
displeasing them. Right? You fear being cut off from them? You fear being distant from them? You
fear their displeasure with you? Yes or no? Yeah. And this is this is how I know the more that we
love the last panel, the more we should fear Him, the more we should fear his displeasure and his
anger because the law tells us that on the Day of Judgment, one of the worst punishments for the
disbeliever is to be cut off from a loss of power that is for what to say that I will not speak to
you today. For what to say
		

			For less and put up a barrier between that person and him, because as you know, what is the best
reward of paradise? The best reward a paradise is the company of almost a planet that it's not just
me with a lot to see a lot, see a lot, it's been almost company. And on the other hand, the worst
punishment of Hellfire is to be cut off from almost primetime, in addition to the punishment is the
fact that the last panel data, I mean, can you imagine I was saying that today you will be
forgotten. Today, you will be forgotten as you forgot my size. Now I want you guys just imagine for
a moment, your mother saying that to just your mom saying you're forgotten. Like to actually forget
		

			you. You know, and this isn't your mother. But imagine a law saying that you'll be forgotten. That
is fear that brings about fear and it should, right because a lie is the one who's always with us in
this life, Allah never forgets us. But in the Hereafter, Allah said that those who forgot to live
this life will be forgotten in that life. And that should make us afraid, Taka, Taka is to guard
ourselves from the Wrath of Allah from the anger of the law from the punishment all of us who have
had it, and from the distance from Allah. Fasting builds this muscle, the ability to delay
gratification, the ability to restrain ourselves, from our desires, we have natural desires for
		

			food, and water and intimacy. And all of these are being restrained, being restrained for the sake
of a loss of habitat. And when you restrict something, now, let me ask you this question. When you
are building muscle in the gym, right? What do you have to do to build muscle in the gym, you have
to do resistance training, you have to resist and you have to lift, right? Yeah. So in order to
build, we have to, we have to actually put in work. And that involves resistance. And in the same
way, in order to build the spiritual muscle to build, we have to resist, we have to be able to go
through some portion of resistance, and some some some amount of struggle and sacrifice. And when we
		

			do that, we become stronger.
		

			And here's the point, every human being is made up of two things, right? There is the physical side
of the human being. And there's the unseen or the spiritual side of the human being, right? Every
human being has its we have the body, and we have the soul. Now, there are certain things that the
body needs to become strong. There are certain things that the body needs to sustain life. Everybody
with me? What are those things food, water, air, right? These are things we need to stay alive
physically. But the soul also has things that it needs to stay alive. And what happens in Ramadan is
that we are, in a sense, starving the body but feeding the soul. We are not eating we are not giving
		

			food to the body. But we are giving food to the soul. And this is so important because most of our
lives are spent feeding the body let's be honest, right? Most of our lives, we focus on the needs of
our physical needs the needs of our physical self, right, I feel hungry, I gotta eat, right? I feel
cold, I gotta you know, warm myself up, I'm thirsty I drink, I have a desire I fulfill it. We're we
tend to focus a lot of our efforts on fulfilling the physical needs. But many of us neglect the
spiritual needs. Many of us neglect the needs of our heart and the needs of our soul. So unless you
have five columns and out of his mercy, he makes it required for us to feed our soul in a robot, you
		

			see a lot of stuff requiring us to feed our soul through fasting. And this is one of the mercies of
Allah subhanho data is allowing us to put aside it's like
		

			you know in any in any imagine that you're in a battlefield for a second right? And you have all
these enemies coming at you. Right? You're trying to you're trying to you're trying to win and you
have all these enemies coming at you imagine have all these different armies. Now what a lot of how
God is doing for us in Ramadan? Is he is he's tightening up some of these armies to allow us to be
successful. What are these enemies? What are these armies? Well, first of all, we
		

			You know, we have this thing called an EFS. Right? Once that NASS
		

			our own self. Now our own self has a lower part. In other words, the lower desires, the animalistic
side of the human being, that's the neffs. Okay.
		

			We have a lower self, the lower desires, which is the naps. Now, now, this next, the lower part of
the naps, or unnatural omada This is a side of the human that pulls the human being towards things,
which are more animalistic. Follow your desires, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.
		

			Now we have the nest, and that's one enemy. And by the way, the nest is one of the hardest enemies
to fight. Because it's you. It's within you, you know, many people ask this question, How do I know
if a whisper is from my neck? Or from shavon? Right? Well, essentially, it's not necessarily
relevant. The point is that if it's wrong, it's wrong. But what we do know is that the whisper of
shake on the whisper shikon can come from any angle. Chicken wants us to disobey a law from any
door, really, he doesn't really care as long as we disobey a law. And usually, what should I found
does is he uses the naps to get to us. If that makes sense. I'll explain what I mean. The next is my
		

			own weaknesses. And every individual has their own weaknesses, right?
		

			People have a weakness in this department, others have a weakness in that department, right? So what
will happen is shut Luckily, use your weakness against you. And sometimes you'll find that there's
certain whispers or certain sins that we become addicted to, that's the next. Right, it's not just
like, shake off and come out of your medicine. But the nest has certain attachments, and certain
weaknesses. That's me, that's myself. And this is an enemy I have to the fight. That's the whole
concept of desk is to purify, and to schedule is to work to purify that lower self. Because within
every human being is kind of like this untamed beast. And if you don't, if you will tame it, and you
		

			just feed it, it becomes a monster. Right? And we see this throughout the world. What happens to a
human being, when they don't take the monster inside? I mean, the kind of carnage that the human
being can cause is unbelievable. And that's because the human has the potential to be a monster. If
if that nest is not tamed, and just fed Just tell me you can become you know, we can become like the
shell team. We can become like the devil's if that next is not taped, right, so this enemy is very
serious. We have another enemy which is the external enemy I've just spoken about the internal enemy
right?
		

			We have another enemy which is the external enemy and that's like on his arm. Right now shape motto
is army are always at us, as they promise as chairman promised, I will come at you, I will come at
your belief in slate from their front from their back. And notice that check on what he promised to
do this. He said, I will attack them on your straight path. Do you know what that means? It means
that it's the people who are trying so hard to stay on the straight path that that the shadow team
want to attack more. Right? Because they're the ones you have to work harder to get. So he's saying
I will attack them on your straight path. And he says that I will come at them from their front and
		

			from their back from their writing from their left meaning that she wanted his arm him to come from
every direction that they possibly can to try to take us off the straight path. So here we are in
this battle of life, right with all these these these enemies. Yeah, we have the internal enemy
that's me.
		

			And we have an external enemy which has shut down his army.
		

			So what does a lot doing garmadon a lot of His mercy ties up one of the enemies. And that's what the
prophets I said to him said that when Ramadan enters the doors of Paradise or open, the doors of
Hellfire are closed and the shuttle T and R Tiga. Allah has eliminated one of the major enemies and
that is shikon and his army. You feel me? So what's left?
		

			That's the last. That's now that's me. That's my internal
		

			That part in need that to become a monster it's not tamed. Right? The Selfish part, the part that,
that, that hungers for power, right? You know what I'm talking about. We see that in many of our
leaders, what that can look like, what that can look like, when it's not to that greed, that's all
F's, that's the next. And so we have this left to what is normal don't do what ties up the external
enemy, and now empowers us against the internal enemy. Empower empowers us against our neffs. How,
through fasting. When we fast, when we fast, we are suppressing the nuts. When we fast we are taming
the nuts because they never sustain Eat, drink intimacy, that's what the that's the status as part
		

			of the lower desires as the lower self. We have a lower self, the physical and we have the higher
self the spiritual, the lower self that's saying Eat Drink intimacy, and we are we are taming that
through fasting. We are taking that through extra event through extra worship. And in that way I was
powder Island is allowing us to win this battle of winning Cody had to avoid evil at home in order
for the Rahim to have a look at him that the shadow lady got it and suffered
		

			was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.