[Music]
alhamd all Praises are due to Allah lord
of the worlds and may Allah constantly
and always send peace and blessings to
Muhammad to his family his companions
and all those who call to his way to the
day of judgment as to what follows I
begin with the greeting words of the
righteous alhamdulillah the month of
Ramadan is a blessed time it is a time
of reflection it is a time of
expansion where the believer is able to
expansion dimensions of understanding
understanding Ramadan takes us out of
the everyday chores and cares of Life
the believer is not tied down with the
need or desire to be seeking food to be
looking for things to drink to be
involved in sexuality during the
daylight hours and through this the
believer is able to raise to a higher
stage or a higher state in existence and
the dimensions are opened up
and
so the
great looked at the sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad s Ali wasallam and also
looked at the dimensions of the fasting
and realized that there are different
stages the first stage we have
identified is s aw and that is the fast
of the Common People it is the fast
where the struggle is going on uh
between the individual and his desires
so the person spends their time seeking
a way to eat food to drink uh to
procreate it is a base level fast and
that is shared by people throughout the
planet that is a way that many people
interpret the rulings within Sharia that
because the Sharia is focusing on the
food and the drink and the physical
activities they feel that this is the
essence of the fast but the Prophet
sallam has told us in authentic Hadith
there are some people who fast but all
they get from their fast is hunger and
there are those who stand in the night
and all they get from their standing is
sleeplessness so he pointed his
followers toward a highest stage and
that we have identified as
s and that is the fast of the
specialized people it is specialized in
the sense that they are focusing on a
special issue higher than their normal
desires so it is a fast that has special
qualities but can be shared by any
Muslim regardless of his gender
regardless of his language and
regardless of where he's living in the
world and
S we have seen is a fast where the limbs
of the individual are fasting the tongue
is fasting the eyes are fasting the ears
are fasting the hands are fasting the
feet are fasting so the individual
symbolically
abstains uh from issues connected with
the limbs and that in a sense is a type
of
iMac because the tongue literally
abstains from scandalizing backbiting
and other negative
issues the third dimension that we want
to look at
is and that is the the specialized the
fast fting of the special of the special
and that is the higher level fast where
the individual is not just abstaining in
a physical sense or abstaining with the
limbs but the heart of the individual Al
literally the heart the Consciousness
the conscience the mind of the
individual is fasting as
well is a stage that all Muslims need to
reach especially in the world today when
our numbers have grown so high and when
we find that although we are blessed
with great wealth although we are
blessed with
intellectuals with um seemingly powerful
countries with most of the natural
resources underneath our country our
lands with intellectuals with technology
we're still finding a problem coming
together something is holding us back
and we have identified through the Quran
that Allah subh has told
us Allah will not change the condition
of a people until they change that which
is in themsel and it starts from the
heart the prophet sallallah wasallam
said there is a lump of Flesh in the
body if it is sound then the whole body
is sound if it is corrupted the whole
body is corrupted and that is the heart
so is now taking the the fast to the
stage where the individual begins to
look at
the or the sicknesses of the
heart from these SI sicknesses we have
identified a few the first of these
sicknesses which is probably um the most
dangerous uh that we find or one of the
most dangerous that we find in the
Muslim world today is
alassad it is jealousy and envy and this
is an issue where H a Muslim is jealous
of another individual and of course this
can hit non-muslims as well but the
Muslim is is jealous of another person
usually because of a material thing and
for instance the woman has a new baby
and other women look at that baby and
say you know I would like to have a baby
like this if they are on that stage
where they would like to have the baby
then that is that is is okay it's a
desire but the hassad is where she wants
the baby and she doesn't want the other
sister to have the baby it's where
seeing the person with the baby seeing
that child causes hatred in the hearts
of the individual that is the hassad
also he comes up with a new car so he
pulls up with a new Lamborghini a new
Porsche and the other Muslims say well I
would would like to have a Lamborghini
like this that's okay but if you want
one and you don't want him to have it if
you hate to see Ali driving in his new
Porsche that feeling that comes out of
you that is the hassad and the strange
issue about hassad is that usually the H
is more affected than the M usually the
person who has the hassad is more
affected than the one who is jealous of
so it is a strange issue but
the is able to to somehow uh uh harness
these evil thoughts and these feelings
and to affect other individuals this is
why
in Allah subh has told us that we should
seek
Refuge we should seek
Refuge
and from the evil of the
envier if he envies we should seek
Refuge from this Hass the prophet sallam
also
said Beware
of this jealousy and envy eats up your
good deeds like a fire eats up firewood
so you go to
Hajj you come back and you're jealous of
another Muslim it burns up all your good
deeds you fast in the month of Ramadan
and you're jealous of a new Masid it
burns up your Deeds you give your zakat
you pay Sak and you're jealous that your
friend has opened up a new store it
burns up all of the hassat that have
come from giving the zakat or giving the
Sak so hassad is a dangerous thing and
the Great have told us that we need to
move against this
we need to realize number one that there
is a creator that if a person is blessed
with wealth that wealth may be a
curse if the person has a new child it
is a test that they are under and we
should be satisfied with what Allah subh
T has given to us another disease is the
disease of Pride kri and that leads into
takab or the arrogance that shows on the
limbs of the person and so we find that
Muslims in many parts of the world feel
that they are better because they speak
Arabic or because they are lightskinned
or because of the texture of their hair
or because the structure of their face
even in some cases the male feels that
he is intrinsically better than the
female this pride is a dangerous issue
in the Muslim world and the prophet
sallam was the best of examples he is
the highest human being in in creation
best of the an yet he was a humble
person and he did not not even want his
followers to stand up when he came
inside the room so pride is a very
dangerous issue and it is dividing up
Muslims all throughout the world where
you will come into a city and you'll
find a Masid for arabic speaking people
a Masid for U speaking people this
disease is destroying the umah look at
Pride if blood was enough by itself with
all respects to the family of the
Prophet Salli wasallam if we look at Abu
laab was Hashim he was of the of of the
the noble n the noble genealogy of the
Prophet Sall wasallam but he's burning
in fire so therefore blood is not enough
and we should not be proud of how of how
Allah has created us we should not be
arrogant because of the color of our
skin or because of the language uh that
we speak we should realize we are all
creations of Allah and every one of us
will leave this earth and when we die
nobody will want to go down inside of
that hole with us and so pride is a very
serious issue and the tell us that we
should move against Pride if we feel
arrogant humble oursel to other people
serve other people wear rough clothes do
whatever you have to do to break that
Pride H uh within yourself because that
raises the level of the fasting and the
understanding of Islam another issue is
the issue of
and that is doing acts of worship to be
seen by other people praying to beautify
the prayers the prophet sallam called
this the silent form of Sherk a minor
form of polytheism and it is dangerous
and he showed us that this would creep
into our umah like a black ant creeping
into a dark night in the darkest
night this uh uh R this showing off
showing off with I with acts of worship
is a dangerous situation so therefore
Muslims we fast for Allah subh tala the
Muslim makes their prayer for Allah
subhana wa taala everything that we do
should be for the Creator and the
Creator alone another issue from the or
the diseases of the Heart
Is It is anger or too much uncontrolled
emotion and anger and when one of the
companions came to the prophet he told
him don't get angry he told him this
over and over again so this emotion
needs to be controlled and in the month
of Ramadan especially after Assa we need
to control ourself even though we feel
hunger so these are some of the diseases
of the heart of course there is conceit
and there are many other issues dealing
with our hearts and the fast
of is the fast
where the believer now goes to the new
dimension where the very um conscience
of the person the soul of the person is
now elevated through the fasting this is
the highest stage of the fast this is
where we can be permanently affected by
the fast this is where when the month of
Ramadan ends it changes the personality
of the individual so we pray that Allah
would bless the Muslims this umah to
have the highest level of fasting and
that we could benefit in this life and
the
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