 Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, Allah has given you the prescription of fasting. Just as He prescribed it for the peoples before us, all of the previous religious traditions had some element of fasting in their tradition. The Christians used to fast for 40 days. The Jews also had fasting, and Allah SWT gave us fasting. And then He gives us the reason, it's called Tampih al-kitab. When Allah tells you why He's doing something, This is one of the most important elements of fasting is to learn piety. And from piety is sabr, and that's why Ramadan is the month of patience. It's learning to be patient. Allah SWT also says the command that He gives in al-Baqarah is that He created us and those that were before us, and then He told us to worship Him that we might be pious, that we might learn this taqwa. And so the Ramadan is a madrasah, it's a school, it's like continuing education that you go back to, like a physician or anybody that's in a type of practice that needs the skills to be upgraded, enhanced. Ramadan is the yearly time that we return to this school of taqwa and of sabr. The Jumu'a is the weekly time. The prayers are the daily time that we return, we realign ourselves with the Divine. Human beings are in heedlessness. Allah SWT says, And you're in a state of heedlessness that you forget your Lord. This is one of the deepest illnesses of the human being. Imam al-Junaid, when he was asked what he thought the foundational sin of the human being was, he said that it was ghafla, it was heedlessness because all sins emanate from heedlessness. But there's another reason why Allah SWT gave us this practice of fasting. In the verses that follow, Allah SWT says, Ayam is called jama'u qilla, it's a plural of pausity, it's a plural that indicates that there is not much of it, like amwal, because wealth, mal, there's not much of wealth. People don't have a lot of wealth. So amwal is the plural of wealth, to indicate that wealth is something that is limited. Ayam and ma'dudat, limited days. You have a few days. And then, but you can make up those days if you were sick or traveling. If you're able to do it, then you can give fidya, so you pay. That was abrogated by the verses that follow. So people used to be able to do fidya if they were wealthy, they could do fidya, but that was removed. And everybody has to fast unless you're sick. And then you can do fidya. And then you can do fidya. And then you can do fidya. And then you can do fidya. And then you can do fidya. If you're sick, and then you can do fidya for that. But other than that, everybody has to fast. So Allah swt said about this, and whoever does extra, this is better for him. Again, those were abrogated, but they still apply to nafila fasting. You draw near to your Lord with nafila, with extra acts, until Allah loves you. And so fasting is one of the ways, three days out of the month. It was the practice of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Some of the Sahaba practiced the fast of Dawood Alaihi Wasallam, which was every other day. Some practiced Monday and Thursday. But the Prophet himself, his practice was three. The three days of the white day. The white days. So the fasting woman, But the fast is better for you. That's if you have a choice. Like if you're traveling, it's better to fast. Some say though if there's difficulty that you should leave it. This month is the month that the Quran was revealed. The Quran, the Inzal of the Quran. Allah SWT. On the 27th, according to most of the scholars, but the Prophet said look for it in the odd days of the last 10 days. The Quran came down to the entire Quran. Jibril A.S. brought the Quran down to this earthly canopy. The heavens, the earth of the heavens. And then over 23 years, it was revealed piecemeal to the Prophet, based on the circumstances and the incidents over the lives of the Sahaba and the Prophet himself. So the Quran came down in Zal one time. And then over 23 years, Allah SWT revealed it through Jibril A.S. piecemeal. So this is Shahru Ramadan. It represents the gift of the Quran, which is why we return to the Quran in Shahru Ramadan. The Prophet SAW said in a sound hadith, he said, The fasting and the Quran will intercede for you. Allah gives them a voice on Yomu Qiyamah. And they intercede for people that practice it. What does Qiyam say? He said, I prevented him from his appetites in the daytime and from his food. And so allowed me to intercede for him. The Quran says, I prevented him from sleeping at night. These are the things that we do. So fasting is not just in the daytime. There's an element in the nighttime, which is sleeping less than we normally sleep. So we eat less than we normally eat and we sleep less than we normally sleep. And what is the gift? Allah SWT accepts her. He grants them their shafa'a for the servants that do this. Look at the Prophet SAW. He didn't increase his tahajjud. Woman and lady tahajjud. He didn't increase his prayers in Ramadan. We do to get closer to the practice of the Prophet that he did all day, every year. That was his practice the whole year. The Prophet was practicing. He didn't increase his practice of prayers. Aisha RA gave one of the great salaf. Aisha said, Tell us the most wondrous thing that you saw from the Messenger of Allah. And she said, What thing that he did wasn't wondrous. He came one night to me and he entered into the bed with me. I could feel his flesh up against my flesh. He said, And she said, I love to be close to you. But I prefer what you prefer. He got up to the place, the water container and he did wudu. And it was a light wudu. So he began to cry until the tears covered his chest. And he continued like that until Bilal came and he told him the prayers come in. In other words, fajr. So Aisha said, What is making you cry when your sins are anything you've done and his sins are doing a virtuous thing when a more virtuous thing could be done. When all your sins have been forgiven what passed and what is to come. And the Prophet SAW said, Should I not be a grateful slave? Should I not be a grateful slave? In a similar hadith in Al-Bukhari, He stood until his feet had the edema from standing so long and he said, Shouldn't I be a grateful slave? Gratitude. Allah SWT says, You read Bikum al-Yusr. Wala yurid bikum al-Yusr. Allah wants ease for you in this fasting. He doesn't want hardship for you. He didn't reveal this Quran for you to be miserable. He wants ease for you. In order for you to complete this fasting in order for you to elevate your Lord to declare His greatness and in order for you to be grateful. Gratitude. This is the secret of Ramadan. This is the time to be reminded Ya yuhal ladina aminu kulu min qayyibati maa razaqnaakum wa shkulu lillahi ingkumtum iyahu ta'budun. O you who believe, eat of the good things of Allah. But show gratitude for those things. If you are truly worshiping Allah SWT one of the most blessed things that we have in this world is food. It brings us together. It nourishes our bodies. It sustains us. And then the pleasure of food itself. This is a great gift. Allah could have made brackish water that we had to drink. He could have given us rocks that we had to crush as our nutrition. But He gave us cherries and grapes and figs. With meat. He gave us all of the blessings that the earth brings forth. What does Allah ask us? Shukr. I'manu ala Dawood. Shukra. Wa qalilu min ibadiyah shukur. Work. Do things out of gratitude. O al Dawood. And how few of my servants are always grateful. Always grateful. This is He didn't say, Shouldn't I be a grateful servant? Shaker. You can be shaker at one time or another time. When you're shakur, it's called Sigha Mubalaghah. It's the form of hyperbole. It means you're always grateful. Our Prophet SAW was always in a state of gratitude. This was his whole experience of the world's gratitude. One of the worst things about modern times is people. They're ungrateful for the police. They're ungrateful for government. They're ungrateful for their educations. They're ungrateful for everything. People just complain all the time. Allah SWT Your Lord has declared If you're grateful, I will increase you in blessings to be grateful for. But if you're ungrateful, I will increase you in blessings to be grateful for. But if you are an ingrate, if you lack gratitude, in fact, if you show ingratitude, I will give you more reasons to be ungrateful. I will give you more reasons to be ungrateful. This is a metaphysical equation. Gratitude equals increase in blessings. Ingratitude equals decrease in blessings. This is a qaida. It's a law. It's a metaphysical law as true as the Newtonian physics that you learned in high school. If you're ungrateful, then Allah will give you more to be ungrateful about, more to whine about. You think it's bad now? You have no idea how bad it can get. Read history to know how bad it can get. You think Syria is bad? Read about the Mongol invasion. They didn't have any place to flee to. You think the Muslims are having a repulation in America? Read about Nazi Germany and what happened to the Jews? We have to be grateful because if we're ungrateful and always complaining, Allah is going to give you more to complain about. I was in one of the Gulf states and somebody was complaining about the price of gasoline, the taxi driver, 25 cents at the time. Now it's a lot higher. Why? Because they keep complaining. Go ahead, complain all you want. Because if you love to complain, Allah will give you plenty to complain about. But if you want to show gratitude, Allah will give you plenty to show gratitude about. They did a study at Davis. It's called the gratitude study for depressed people. They had them write down every day, every morning, 10 things they were grateful for. Over a period of a month, people's depression started being lifted. When you start counting the blessings of Allah, you'll never come to an end. And you can count blessings like just eyelashes. People don't have eyelashes. They fall out. Eyelashes are a wonderful blessing. Or some people have dry eyes. So if you have moisture in your eyes, what a blessing. If you have teeth, what a blessing. If you don't have teeth, if you have dentures, what a blessing. There's people that don't have dentures. If you lose one arm, what a blessing. You didn't lose both arms. If you lose both arms, what a blessing. Now they have prosthetic devices that enable you to do things. Even Abbas said in every tribulation in dunya, there are three blessings hidden that you have to recognize. The first is that it could have been worse. The second is that it's in your dunya and not in your dean. And the third in your world, the affairs are not in your religious affairs. And the third, it's in this world and not in the next. And you should be grateful for that. People now are complaining. Allah said He's going to try you to see who of you are the best in actions. We're going to try you. You will be tried in your wealth and in your lives. You are going to hear all these people telling how horrible you are and how terrible your religion is. Allah said that. What does He say? How's our response? What's our response? We intasbiru. And if you show patience, we'll tataqu and show piety, restraint. Control yourselves. Because that is at the essence of this matter. This is our dean. Allah SWT said Allah strikes a similitude for you to think. A similitude. Allah strikes a similitude for you to reflect. A township, a city, a hamlet that was peaceful. It was tranquil. It had provision in abundance coming from every place. Like we have today, we eat berries from Chile and we drink tea from China. And we have rice from India, basmati rice in your homes from India. You get all this blessing from all over the world. So what did they do? Instead of saying Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah They were ungrateful. This is the meaning of kufr. Kufr is ingratitude. You can be a Muslim and be a kafir in the meaning that you're an ingrate. Right? This is ingratitude. That's the essence of kufr. The essence of Islam is gratitude. Shukr. A feeling of blessing that Allah has given. The biggest blessing is that we exist. An ijad, an imdad. The blessing of giving us our existence and then sustaining our existence. He could take away that sustenance at any time. So Allah SWT says that he enveloped that city in hunger Look at the blessing of food. In hunger and terror. Hunger and terror. Why? Why? What's the cause? Because of their ungratefulness. And this is what we've lost an understanding of our religion. We look at all these events and we don't see the real source of these events. Ingratitude. If we want to change the world we have to change our state and our attitude about all these blessings that we've been given. Government is a blessing. Even the worst form of government is better than anarchy. Even a tyranny is better. This Madaqib and Ana said this. These weren't ignorant people. These were genius people. Because he lived through civil wars. He saw what happens when things break down. The people of Damascus six years ago were eating beautiful food. They had good clothes. It was one of the few countries on the planet that was actually self sustained. And now all of this tribulation and if you say why is it happening to them and not us maybe because Allah loves them more because we know Ahlus Sham have a maqam. So Allah will put all of the torment of the Akhirah He'll put it in the dunya for a short period and then go back to Allah completely free of any tribulation or punishment. Maybe it's the places that aren't being afflicted that deserve to be afflicted that should be worried. This is the way Muslims traditionally looked at things. When the ma'u came down, when the Mongols came down they didn't say these evil Mongols they said This is a punishment God has sent to us because of our wrong actions. That's how they looked at it. In America, evil Israel, evil Okay, good. Allah put them in power. He says He gives power to them ever he pleases. Muslim had it. If Muslims had nuclear weapons right now with the idiots that we have we would have nuclear conflagrations all over. Allah knows what He's doing. Allah knows who He gives power to. Yes, they abuse their power but to what degree? It's going to be worse. People want the destruction of America. Well, let's see what happens when China gets the world power. See if there's going to be an Abu Ghraib that you hear about. See if there's going to be any way, recourse to redressing any wrongs. Allah ta'ala anam I don't know. But sometimes the worst things are answered prayers. We don't know. The different way of looking at the world I don't understand it that way but I read the Quran and the Quran it comes back to me. Where did this calamity come from? Allah says It's from your own selves. It didn't say oh, it's from those evil Quraish. Those evil Quraish. No, Allah wanted the Quraish to become Muslim. What do you say You say Ahum Kareem Ibn Ahum Kareem You're a noble son of a noble. Go ahead and pray. You're free today. I forgive you. He said what He said what Yusuf said to his brothers who threw him in a well and left him to die. Because that's the state of believers. When they get angry yes, we get angry but they realize what am I really getting angry at at a test that God sent me whom am I really angry at See, you can be humanly angry but who are you really angry at If everything is a test from Allah then who are you really angry at That's a question. Allah SWT said Thank you Thank you No, thank you These are days of shukr for the second happiness You have two joys happiness is when they get angry and happiness is when they get angry He has a joy when he completes he breaks his fast because he's completed the Ibadah and then the light of the food most of the big ulama said it's ma'am a ta'a that's the farha, it's not the food it's actually finishing the Ibadah that's imam no way high maqam Allah SWT says right the prophet was shakur but he told us to be shakr one of the Arafin said that's there is Ibadah there is Ibadah so that's a high maqam it's where you're always grateful thank you this is what all the ulama taught and muhammad al musawi said is the meaning of shukr real shukr shukr is to utilize what God has given you to utilize what he's given you out of gratitude he gave you an eye to see not to look at pornography he gave you a tongue to speak the truth not to lie, not to cheat not to backbite he gave you a hand to work and not to steal or to embezzle or to take things that aren't yours he gave you feet to walk in righteousness the servants of the merciful who walk tread lightly on the earth they talk about carbon footprints now carbon footprints Ibadah al rahman don't have a carbon footprint they tread lightly on the earth and if the servant of them says says we revealed this book we revealed this book we revealed this book we revealed this book and what will convey to you what it is it's better than 83 months of worship the prophet was because he was so covetous about solicitous for his ummah he was concerned that his ummah would not have a lot of rewards when he knew that the ancients had much longer life spans so this is this is a specific gift to this ummah that they have a night that is worth months of ibadah and so in a lifetime you will get years added on to your ibadah this is a great gift from Allah and this is why Allah SWT the prophet SAW said من قام رمضان ايمان و احتسابا غوفر لهم تقدم من ذنبه whoever stands doing extra acts تهجد and ترويح stands doing extra acts he has his sins of what past ومن صام رمضان ايمان و احتسابا غوفر لهم تقدم من ذنبه and whoever fasts the month of رمضان believing in Allah and believing that the reward is from Allah اصيام لي و أنا اجذي fasting is my own and I reward it myself that's what Allah SWT says in the hadith ومن قام ليلة القدر ايمان و احتسابا غوفر الله لهم ما تقدم من ذنبه و ما تأخر or as Allah SWT said whoever stands on Lailة القدر in belief and expecting a reward from Allah he will have his sins forgiven the prophet SAW said in the hadith الصلواته و الجمعة إلى الجمعة غوفرات لذنب that your prayers each day you pray مشتنب كبائر as long as he avoids major wrong actions the prayer the five prayers that you do and then from Juma to Juma Friday prayer to Friday prayer and then رمضان ترمضان these will remove your sins they will remove your sins as long as you avoid major wrong actions that needs a specific type of Toba صغائر get removed from وضو from prayer, from fasting, from Juma all these things but the major wrong actions but the major ones are well known معلوم الدين ضرورة drinking, stealing, cheating, lying fornication, adultery all those things that Allah has declared foul so this Ramadan is a great gift of this ummah it's a time of special gratitude one of the hallmarks of gratitude is that you share your blessings with others you share your blessings with others كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أجود الناس وأجود ما يكون في شهر رمضان كان أجود من ريح مرسلة the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was the most generous of men always but he was even more generous in Ramadan, why? زيادة الشكر the sense of blessing the gift it's a great gift we have a lot of tribulation in our community at home and at abroad each person has their own each one of you can give me a litany of tribulations this is just dunya this is dunya this is dunya so all those tribulations that you have if you put them next to all the blessings you have they're nothing and that's why if you focus on your tribulations you'll become ungrateful if you focus on your blessings you'll become grateful I advise myself and all of you to count our blessings this is my advice and Ramadan is one of the greatest people say oh it's so hard how do you fast a whole month without water? oh my god people cry the righteous cry when Ramadan ends you see the blessings of this month what hunger do we really have? really it just makes you appreciate the cornucopia of food that you have so this is my advice we need to show more gratitude and stop complaining Iblis is the complainer in the Quran he complains all the time he's so upset about things and he wants to just make us ungrateful it's his favorite thing to do make us ungrateful make you ungrateful for your wife make your wife ungrateful for you microaggressions you know all these grievance theory and victimology it's a disease that Iblis has spread amongst this humanity it's a disease racism is a reality what racism didn't exist in the past how do people respond to racism? you're a racist the prophet said you're a man that still has jahlia in you you're a racist you racist man he didn't say that he said there's still some ignorance in you that's what racism is just ignorance because your color is different from me means that you're less than me or I'm more than you you cut the person he bleeds tickle him, he laughs deprive him of food he gets hungry make him angry, he gets angry human beings that's the human being human condition clearly it's a problem on the planet it always has been how did the prophet deal with it he educated people you could do better than that he put his hand face on the ground and begged Bilal to put his foot on his face kafaratan just for saying you're going to sow that which is like using the N word today that's what he asked him to do forgive me ignorance is from jahlia the beauty of Islam it teaches you how to be different all these problems have been around how do we address them how do we look to the future all this grievance from the past the English did horrible things they did horrible things to my answer is mostly from Ireland 700 years of oppression that's not the English people today they didn't do that they didn't conquer India those people are all dead the Armenian man was in the doctor's office I said if you've ever been to Turkey I can't go there he looked at me and said are you Armenian he said yeah and then he was like why do you say that because that's that prejudice that you're displaying is cultural those Turks today had nothing to do with what those Turks did 100 years ago don't blame them war makes people do horrible things American boys that went to Iraq they were nice boys many of them if you met them you'd find them pleasant people you'd sit with them, have coffee talk to them when they went into that horrific condition of war they became murderers this is what war does to people and now they come back they commit drugs they commit suicide because they cannot believe what they actually did this is what war does to people that's why it's such an evil we have to let these grievances go we're all children of Adam we're all cousins if we went back far enough we would see we're somewhere down the line we're cousins we're family and we have uncles that people want to kick out of the family but you can't there's people they're terrible but this is the reality how do we make it better Remember God and don't forget him and be grateful and don't be ungrateful that's what we say the last thing I wanted to say Glory to Allah when we have the fitr for people just a reminder the fitr is an obligation on everybody that you have nafaqah for in other words all of your dependents you have to give the aid of the fitr and the sa'a traditionally it was given on the day on the way to the prayer the Hanafi's permit it before we can use these opinions because it's difficult in America for people to do things always and they also permit it with money the other imams they say you give it rice or something there's a monetary what is it so it's between 5 and 7 to get out of khilaf it's always good to go to the higher so I would say give 7 dollars for each person in your family and they have the boxes but do that because the fasting is muallak it's suspended it won't go to Allah until you've done the zakat al-fitr there's only 4 there's 8 categories in toba in the 60th verse in toba so this is a faridah it's only for fukarah and masakeen that's the zakat al-fitr