 I seek salvation from shaitan the accursed my dear brothers and sisters from all across the world I greet you with the greatest of greetings May peace, blessings and protection of Allah be with you May peace, blessings and protection of Allah be with you at every step of your journey through this month I would like to welcome you to another edition of the Ramadan show Exclusively here on Imam Hussain TV with me your host Dr Shabir Tijani Insha'Allah we hope that you join in with this show by joining us on social media on Twitter using the hashtag IHTVRamadan on Facebook on Instagram and on YouTube Please also don't forget to send in your videos from around the world from where you are to show us how you prepare for the month of Ramadan Before going and commencing on to the rest of the show I want to share a hadith with you from Imam Hussain Alaihissalam where he says the ultimate form of showing mercy from one human being to another is being able to forgive another person when you have the ability to punish them or to take revenge Surely this is a message that we must remember through this month where forgiveness is a very noble trait and noble thing to have in order for you to be free from the shackles of hatred and to be able to get close to Allah SWT In today's segment when we're talking about spiritual refinement I want to focus on a specific trait a way of thinking that you can develop in order to achieve perfection to complete your journey towards Allah SWT And this is the importance of self-knowledge In Arabic the term for self-knowledge is which directly into English translates as knowledge of oneself or importance of self-knowledge But when I talk about that what do I mean by self-knowledge? I don't mean the cognitive and the physical self-knowledge where you know your name, where you live, the country that you were born in other aspects of your day to day life but rather the spiritual dimension of your life When we speak of the different dimensions of the spirit and of our being don't forget that the human being is fundamentally different to all other sorts of beings Even though physically scientists have shown that we are just another animal we have facets to our being, to our makeup that make us very unique from other animals These facets, these important qualities the most important of all is the rational thinking that we have the ability to tell good from bad from right from wrong and it doesn't exist in any other animal apart from the human being To understand the importance of self-knowledge it is important to have a look at the greatest book of all, the Holy Quran and there is inferences from the Quran specific verses that we can look at in order to give us a better idea of exactly what the self-knowledge the importance of self-knowledge is In Surah Hasher, Allah SWT says and be not like those who forget Allah so He made them forget their own souls these, it is that they are transgressors Here Allah SWT is saying that forgetting Him causes one to forget themselves in turn and ultimately the person that forgets themselves becomes a transgressor There is a tradition that makes a similar point to that of this verse but looks at it from a slightly different angle When you read the books of ethics you will not find many books written without this quotation and it says, He who truly knows Himself has known His Lord If you think about the profound depth of this statement you understand that the importance of understanding yourself is a path towards God Himself Awareness of oneself leads to awareness of His Lord and likewise the one who is oblivious of His Lord is oblivious of Himself and the person who is determined to learn about His Lord the first step on that conquest is learning about yourself from the Holy Quran, Ma'idah says O you who believe, take care of yourselves He who urns cannot hurt you when you are on the right path In this verse Allah SWT is telling us to take care of ourselves to pay attention to ourselves and to be careful of the wellbeing of our spirits because when we are aware of the knowledge that we have and aware of the spirit that we have, our souls we pick up very quickly on the diseases of that soul because you see, when you are at one with your soul and if you are at one with your inert being your intrinsic being you become very very quickly aware when something is not quite right when the balance isn't right and that is when you identify the diseases of your soul Allah SWT has told us what traits we should stay away from what things we should not do and on the contrary He has also told us things that we should try to do in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment and closeness to Him Sometimes a question may arise about the relationship between the believer and the society that he lives in Does that mean that the verse tells us that we should focus on ourselves and not pay attention to society as a whole? To answer this question Allah SWT expands on this topic in his book Al Meezan For those of you who do not know who Allah SWT is he's one of the greatest scholars who has written or had written a book which interprets the verses of the Holy Quran it's a tafsir and he explains what Allah SWT is writing or saying in the Holy Quran and he tries to expand upon the verses in order to see, in order to use those verses and be able to implement those verses in our day to day life not only on a personal basis but also how we can affect society at large For instance in Islam we're commanded to advise people to do good and refrain from evil One who does not perform this duty is not considered to be a devout Muslim because it is incumbent upon us all to do that So the reason that is not helping the society to better itself that person cannot be considered a Muslim A verse of the Holy Quran which also emphasises the importance of self-knowledge It says we will soon show them our signs in the universe and in their own souls until it becomes quite clear to them that it is the truth Allah SWT says very soon we will show them our signs but what is he talking about when he talks about our signs and where can we find them? These signs are found in two places meaning the extrinsic or the external world and the intrinsic world within our own souls The ayah tells us that by looking at these signs contemplating on these signs which exist all around us but also exist within our souls we can achieve closest to Allah SWT and we will be able to see the proof of his existence very very clearly through that Self-knowledge doesn't mean that we should purely focus on just our souls Surely the world around us society at large has been created for us to partake in We have a role to play within this world within society, within even this materialistic world let's face it, the person who has our living who either works as a scientist or a doctor, works in the laboratory works in the hospital or even if they have a menial job they work out anywhere in this world they're earning an honourable living they're able to feed their family and through that they're able to give back to society it is again one of the most distinctive characteristics of Islam that the two worlds are never separated you have a role to play in this world and through the role you play in this world it will affect what happens to you hereafter in this western world that we live in well, in western society in particular in this world that we live in we see countless examples of people who totally alienate themselves in one way or the other especially in the western world we find people who are so submersed within the materialistic world in the light of their inert being their intrinsic being it is very important to make sure that you have a balance very important to be at one with your soul and not to get too caught up in this materialistic world Amirul Ma'minin says I wonder that person who urgently seeks and searches for that which he has lost but he has lost his soul and is not searching for it he also says the ultimate knowledge of a man is to know himself as we can see from the verses of the Qur'an and from the sayings of the A'im alayhi salam we find that seeking or trying to find yourself is one of the first steps to trying to find Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and let's pray that during this month whilst we're sitting down contemplating, reflecting philosophizing, reassessing our lives within those time frames within those moments we find brief glimpses into our souls into the inert being, intrinsic beings that we are and when we do that we'll see a reflection of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we can see the bounties that he's bestowed upon us and by doing that we can get closest to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as well Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Rava alayhi salatu wa salam has said someone who recites one verse from the book of Allah, the mighty, the glorious in the month of Ramadan is like one who has recited the entire Quran in the other months during the process during these episodes in the month of Ramadan I've been trying to look at different parts of the world and how people from all over the world celebrate or rather prepare for the month of Ramadan prepare their day to day lives for the month of Ramadan and how it differs from different countries different cities around the world today we'll be talking about Tehran Tehran is the capital city in the country of Iran and once I've been, well when I've been researching into how the Tehranis have a subtly different routine day to day in the month of Ramadan I've come across a few things which I thought I'd share with you as I've said before Tehran is a very very busy city outside the month of Ramadan the people the Tehranis tend to work long long hours shops open at 9 in the morning open through the course of the day and close sometimes at 10 or 11 o'clock at night however during the month of Ramadan the opening hours of the shops are very small or much less and they close by 5pm in the evening the Tehranis they tend to all go to the Mosfar Iftar so one hour before the time of sunset if you go out into the roads you will see the roads are absolutely jam-packed because as people are trying to make their way home they are trying to make their way to the mosques in time for the Iftar and once they get to the mosques the communities as a whole they tend to have Iftar together so that they can enjoy in the food they can build brotherhood and sisterhood within the confines of the mosque even though compared to some of the more religious cities in Iran Tehran is actually considered a city such as Mashhad or Qum to be less religious however even in this month all of the people endeavor and make the utmost effort to go to the mosques we see that Majlis starts at the time of Iftar sometimes at about 9 o'clock and it goes on until the time of Fajr they have long long programs which include Dua lectures specific nights where it's recommended to have A'amal and they also get together as a community and as a result they build strong bonds within the communities themselves for those of you who are not aware Tehran has two shrines of the sons of Imams the first one is Saleh the son of Imam Qadim and the second one is Shah Abdul Azim who is the son of Imam Hassan and during the nights of the A'amal the Tehranis, the people of Tehran they go to these two shrines one is based in the north the other one is based in the south and they perform their A'amal in the confines of the shrines as I've said before and requested you before it would be very nice for you at home to send your videos, your pictures to show the rest of the world how you prepare for your day-to-day activities in the month of Ramadan as I've said it would be interesting to gain an insight into that to see how your day-to-day preparation varies from different people around the world and from country to country and insha'Allah once we get that we will endeavour to try and air it on Imam Hussein TV Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem dearest Imam Hussein TV viewers assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh one of the most precious stones that has been recommended by Prophet Muhammad and Ahlul Bayt is the stone of Aqeer it has been said that Aqeer or the mountain that holds within itself the precious stone of Aqeer was the first mountain to believe in God, Prophet Muhammad and Ahlul Bayt alayhimu salam today we are in one of the stores that sells precious stones these precious stones turn to ring and these rings have been recommended by Ahlul Bayt and Prophet Muhammad to be weird during the prayers brothers and sisters we are with the brother Muhammad Reza he is one of the store owners here in the holy city of Karbala peace be upon you can you tell us what is the most precious stone in the name of Allah Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem I am also the mother of the blessed and the most precious I will also perform my prayers and I will be the wife of Aqeer the most precious stone is in the name of Zaharin all praise be to Allah it is very natural Zaharin is always in the visitation most of the time is Friday masha Allah between Haram and Abalfaz alayhimu salam and Imam Hussein The brother is saying that the status of the visitors to the holy city of Karbala is so normal. The visitors are coming to the holy city of Karbala and especially on the holidays during this holy month. And he's saying that on one of his visits to Bain al-Haramain and the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussain and Abel Fattar Abbas, he realized that there is no space and the visitors are occupying all the space. And what are the most people using these stones? Most of the stones are actually made in Yemen. These stones are made for the holidays, especially on the holidays of the month of Saturday. Because the holidays are also made by the other countries, like Egypt, America and China. But the most of the holidays that are made by the people of al-Hussain are on the holidays of the month of Saturday. And the most of the stones are made by the people of Karbala and the people of Iraq. And the most of the holidays are made by the people of Karbala and the people of Iraq. I asked the brother about the stones and the precious stones that they have here in this store. He's saying that the most valuable and the most precious one is the stone of Aqneek and it is the most famous one amongst all these precious stones. As well as the door which is a precious stone from the holy city of Najaf. He's saying that in both holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, Aqneek and door is the most famous one and people mostly buy these stones. As well they have a stone which has come from Naishaabur, a city in the holy city of Mashhad. And it is one of the most famous stones that comes from Iran. In this segment of the show where we talk about medical advice and health tips, I want to follow on from what we said yesterday about addiction and just talk a little bit about the harmful effects of smoking. As we know there are many people in our communities who smoke and they find that smoking has become a habit and become an addiction for them. So inshallah I'll talk to you a little bit about number one, what are the harmful and what effects that smoking has on your health and secondly I'll also talk a little bit about how if you want to give up you can give up. Smoking or cigarettes have many harmful chemicals within them. The main reason why people take the cigarettes is because of the effects of nicotine on their body. Nicotine works on the brain, works on the nicotinic receptors in the brain and what it does is it affects the frontal lobe. People say that it helps them to calm down, helps them to concentrate. Whilst this may be true there are also a lot of negative effects of smoking that they must try and understand. How smoking affects pretty much every single organ in the body. How we can have very harmful effects for the heart, for the lungs, for the blood vessels as well that supply the rest of the body. Smoking obviously consists of tobacco, it has tar in it as well and many, many carcinogens. Carcinogens are those chemicals that can cause cancer and the way it causes cancer is that it oxidizes cells and the free radicals within the chemicals from a chemistry point of view that ionize the cells or they can cause changes within the cell infrastructure that can make them cancerous. Apart from that, the harmful chemicals and especially the tar when it ends up in the lungs it actually stops the hair cells, the ciliary cells within the lungs from moving and the impact on the design of the ciliary cells of these cells, these hair cells is to move the mucus up the airway in order for it to clear the lungs, for it to clear the throat. Unfortunately in smokers they find that this mechanism doesn't work and the lungs become filled with nasty chemicals with mucus and as a result they find it difficult to breathe. Over a prolonged period of time the effects of smoking on the lungs are very profound. They can cause changes within the structure of the lung, parenchyma, the structure of the lung itself and cause something called COPD which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which basically means that the actual structure of the lung becomes such that it causes an obstructive pathology an obstructive problem for the person who has those diseased lungs and over a period of time it can get so bad that it can mean that you're reliant on long-term oxygen therapy it can even lead to death. As we know with the profound impact of cigarette smoke on the lungs the quality of life of those who are on long-term oxygen therapy is very very poor and as a result they must pay heed to the advice that I'm giving about the negative effects of cigarette smoke also the carcinogens, the cancer causing chemicals within the cigarette smoke itself can cause lung cancer. Pretty much everyone who has lung cancer has been exposed to some form of chemical that can cause that lung cancer so in very very old people, usually those who are miners they have cancer caused by the charcoal or the soot within the minds within the lungs of the people who were exposed to asbestos they have cancers caused by the asbestos and people who have been exposed to cigarette smoke can have cancers caused by that cigarette smoke now do not forget that also Shisha is within this parameter, this spectrum of things that you inhale that can cause diseases of the lungs so it's very important to also try and avoid Shisha if possible we've covered the lungs, now let's talk about the heart and other parts of the body that can be affected by smoking obviously smoking because of the chemicals that it contains, rather the cigarettes, the chemicals that they contain these chemicals move around the body within the bloodstream and what they do is they affect the lining of the blood vessels so for someone who smokes, for example the lining of the blood vessels in the heart, the coronary arteries are extremely small so these chemicals they affect and go into the lining of the blood vessels within the wall of the coronary arteries and they start building up plaques this combined with other risk factors such as maybe diabetes or blood pressure increases the risk of developing heart disease later on in life but even cigarettes by themselves, they can cause plaque formation and over time I shall be talking about heart disease and heart attacks in future episodes but just a brief insight into what effects this can have on the heart these plaques become bigger and bigger and over time they can block the coronary artery hence causing heart attacks or angina other parts of the body are affected by cigarette smoke as well I've done a job in the past within vascular surgery a lot of people who smoke block their blood vessels in their feet, in their legs and they get something called claudication claudication is basically where the blood vessels within the leg cannot supply enough oxygen to the muscles of the leg especially when you're doing activities such as walking and this over time can develop into non-healing ulcers, it can develop into gangrene and can lead to the need of your foot being amputated I've seen very very young people who've had their feet amputated simply because they would not give up smoking and finally just one of the other organs I want to concentrate on when it comes to the harmful effects of cigarette smoking is the gut a lot of people who smoke either end up getting or make their inflammatory bowel disease much worse especially Crohn's disease and what cigarette smoke does is it makes this inflammatory condition much much worse so it's very important people who smoke find that they eat less because the smoking affects the lining of their stomach but over time that cigarette smoke can actually cause pre-curse or rather predispose you to developing severe pathologies, severe problems with the gut itself and now that I've talked a little bit about the harmful effects of smoking let's talk a bit about how you can give up smoking if you wish to do so the first and most important thing is realising that smoking actually is harmful to your health and making sure that you want to cut it out of your life because no matter what steps you take, if the willpower isn't there then you'll never be able to give up many people try different things, some people just stop dead, they just stop straight away and go cold turkey a lot of people find that they can do this and that their addiction isn't as profound however there are some people who need the nicotine within their system so that it can have an effect and for those people it's very important to consider trying different types of therapies in order to give up smoking so one of these therapies could be nicotine replacement therapy and people have found that using things like patches, electronic cigarettes or lozenges tends to help but people who don't think that that actually helps them, they've tried other sort of things like some people have tried acupuncture or meditation some people find that cigarette smoking is more of a social thing for them so they try to change their habits and the day-to-day routine some people find that they have a cigarette after say breakfast or after lunch, after dinner and it's not necessarily an addiction but it's become a force of habit, a part of a routine so especially this month of Ramadan where you change your daily routine, you change the times that you eat and the times you drink, the times you do things on a day-to-day basis try to also cut smoking out of your day-to-day habit I know a lot of people find that they smoke after they've eaten so after Iftar, try to find something else that you can preoccupy your time with try to do du'as and amal in order to preoccupy your time and remember that Allah SWT wants you to come close to Him so focus your attention on that Insha'Allah, I pray that this is one of the diseases that we have not only physically but also affects you spiritually within our community so for those who can, it is beneficial to give up so that insha'Allah you can continue to have a long profound impact upon your communities and have longevity of your life, have a good quality of life because essentially that's the most important things for yourself, for your family and for the community Some narrations according to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, regarding narrations about fasting Verily Allah the Almighty has appointed some angels only in order to pray for the people who fast Jibrail has informed me that Allah the Almighty has said I have not commanded my angels to pray for one of my creatures unless I have accepted the prayers for him or her The sixth Imam of Ahlul Bayt, Imam Al-Sadaq, peace be upon him states When a person fasts on a hot day for the sake of Allah and becomes thirsty Allah the Almighty sends 1000 angels to touch his or her face and give him or her glad tidings up until the time of breaking their fast when Allah the Almighty tells them how nice you smell what a pleasant soul you possess O my angels bear witness that I have forgiven him or her Based on narrations like this everything that seems bad in this world is not necessarily the same in the Hereafter and vice versa Therefore, although the person who fasts in this month may smell bad in this world or their mouths may have a bad smell However, they have a pleasant order for Allah SWT and the residents of heaven On the other hand, according to a very famous tradition narrated by some Sunni and Shia scholars the Holy Prophet has stated that Allah the Almighty said fasting is for me and I am the one who rewards for it The content in the narration has been widely discussed by scholars while all worships are for Allah and he is the one who rewards for it However, why has fasting played a significant role in that narration? We can answer this question by three answers Number one, the first reason is that fasting is the abandoning of some acts thus this is the only worship that has not been seen and it cannot be seen or known by anyone Another reason as suggested by some scholars is the fact that during the history all kinds of worship such as prayer, pilgrimage, giving zakat or khums sacrifice and so on and so forth have been offered to idols and false gods and the only exception among the acts of worship is fasting since no one has fasted ever before except for Allah SWT In this episode, I want to dedicate the poem and the recital to none other than the personality that's taught us the way of supplicating who's taught us the art of supplication that individual from whose teachings we've managed to learn the traits that make us better individuals he taught us the dua of Makarimul Akhlaq and through his life he showed us and guided us to perfection and how to achieve perfection in the human form and spiritual elevation none other than Imam Sajjad alayhi salam this poem was written by me and my brother Abbas it is dedicated to the qualities of Imam Sajjad and specifically it highlights what we've learnt from his life and also from what he was tested with during Karbala and after Karbala too you taught us the art of supplication you showed us the power of prostration to make Islam our life's foundation and how to ask Allah for salvation such is your status so holy so you made Allah's love your only goal oh my Imam oh my Imam Zainullah bideen oh my Imam Zainullah bideen oh Sajjad for 40 long years you kept on weeping cause in your mind sham kept on repeating the lashes you got those memories of what you heard felt and what you saw Zainullah bideen oh Sajjad my God my intention love will flow ocean you are the leader of all of man so please give us all a helping hand oh my Imam oh Sajjad I want to fight for truth I will face objection for my beliefs I may face objection for my beliefs rejection I need your help I need your protection to stand against falsehood everyday and leave my life master in your way oh Sajjad Imam Ali ibn Musa ar-Rava alaihi salatu was-salam has said someone who recites one verse from the book of Allah the mighty the glorious in the month of Ramadan is like one who has recited the entire Quran in the other months as we come to the conclusion of this episode I wanted to leave you with a thought a philosophy something that can get you to think and contemplate about life and it's a saying that I've come across many times however I don't know who it's from and who quoted it but it's a saying that I've implemented in my life many times so inshallah I hope it's something that will inspire you as well the saying is a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and that is true for everything that you do in life for every form of action and worship even on this path to spiritual elevation the journey may be long but no matter what the journey is it always begins with a single step and the small steps become together and they make the whole journey it has been a pleasure to partake in the show and to be here with you inshallah I hope that you remember us in your du'as and we also pray for the reappearance of the 12th imam alayhi salam please also don't forget to send us your videos from where you are and finally don't forget to join us on social media on Twitter, on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube until the next episode I bid you farewell by saying