 At the end of the last session, I said that the rationale behind fasting is given in the Quran. Surah Al-Baqarah verse 183, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us to fast, لَعَلَّكُمْ تَكْتَقُونَ, in order for you to attain taqwa. In pre-Islamic times, the word taqwa was used by the Arabs as a fencing term that meant to parry the attack of an incoming sword. When we practice taqwa in Islam, we are protecting ourselves from anything that might harm the state of our spiritual hearts, and thus might harm our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is everything. No other relationship is as important, I guarantee you. The Prophet ﷺ said on the difficult day of ta'if, after he was insulted and abused by the Bani Thaqeef, he said, if this is happening to me and you are not angry with me, so this is his supplication, his words to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if this is happening to me and you're not angry with me, فَلَأُبَالِ, then I am fine with it. You see, his only concern was the state of his relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Therefore the muqtaqeef is the one who guards his spiritual heart by practicing self-discipline. He has control over his impulses with the goal of mastering the self. He's not a slave to his impulses and desires, which is a very common form of idolatry. It's called egolatry, worship of the ego, from ego, meaning the self, and the latrayo. These are both Greek words, meaning to offer cultic worship. That the true muqtaqeef is only a slave to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is not permissible to be enslaved to anything or to anyone other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And everyone is enslaved to something. The Qur'an says, have you seen the one who إتخذى إلهه هوا? The one who is taken as his God, his own hawa, his own desires, his own caprice. The Qur'an doesn't buy atheism. Everybody is enslaved to something and worship something. When the hawa of the atheist or the antithiest says to him, يا عبدي, O my slave, let's eat this or drink that. Let's commit this act or that act. He responds, let's bake at your service, Ya Rabb, O my Lord. Most modern Satanists don't actually believe in Satan, by the way, as an actual person. For them to worship Satan, to worship Satan is to worship your desires. This is what they say. Just yesterday, unfortunately, I saw a commercial for a hair removal product whose tagline was, quote, worship yourself and the rest will follow. You know, so these ad agencies, they're smart. They know what appeals to people in 2021. It's not smart to alienate yourself from people when you're trying to sell them a product. They know this will sell. People have this, people are locked in this type of egottery, this worship of the nuffs of the ego. In Islam, we are taught to discipline the nuffs and to worship God. In this culture, young people are taught to worship the nuffs and make themselves God. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, Asomu Junna, fasting is a shield. So the words Junna and Jannah and Jinn all come from a root word, meaning something hidden or concealed. OK, the fast acts like a hidden shield. So when we fast, we pay special attention, special vigilance to the state of our hearts. And there are seven inroads to the heart that must be guarded according to the scholars, the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the genitals and the stomach. So when we fast, we train ourselves not to abuse creation with our hands. We do not, we do not allow our feet to take us to places that are displeasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. We do not allow our ears to gaze at the impermissible. We do not allow our ears to listen to the impermissible. We do not, we do not allow our tongues to speak the impermissible. And we learn to have control over our sexual organs and appetite for food. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, YAHFADILLA YAHFADKAH Guard Allah and Allah will guard you. Meaning guard his injunctions, his awamir, his nawahi, and he will protect you and preserve you. Imam Majafirah Sahib said, Taqwa is that Allah never misses you, where he's commanded you to be and he never finds you, where he has prohibited you to be. So when we practice this heightened state of self-vigilance, this heightened state of muraqaba during Ramadan, we are metaphorically setting up these security checkpoints upon the inroads to the heart, thus protecting the heart from potential attackers. And this leads to a heart that is a state of being that is spiritually healthy and pleasing to our Lord. And again, that's everything. It's all about relationship with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. All right? Ibrahim Alaihi Sallam is praised in the Quran because he was the quintessential monotheist and because he brought to his Lord a sound, healthy, spiritual heart. In other words, he was a person of taqwa in the most perfect sense. But there's a certain methodology we have to follow, right? In order to be in this healthy relationship, we can't just make up a method. We can't just place our hopes in somebody else to do the work for us. Those are different religions. We have to do the work. The word Muslim is an active participle. It's not passive. We have to get busy doing this work. Now, when we abstain from food and drinks during the daylight hours, we're going to feel these twinges of hunger and thirst throughout the day. I'm sure all of you have experienced this. We're coming down to the end of a month now. This is unavoidable. But what we tend to do when this happens is that we tend to look at our watches and phones and begin asking ourselves, how many more hours until maqrib? How many more hours do I have to do this? How many more days do I have to do this? If this happens to you, catch yourself, then ask yourself, why am I fasting? Of course, there's going to be hunger and thirst for long hours. You already knew that. So why are you doing this? So remind yourself that the purpose of fasting is not to simply feel the discomfort of hunger and thirst and then to try to get this over with as quickly and as painlessly as possible. There's going to be pain. There's going to be discomfort. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, How many people are there that fast, that get nothing from their fast, except hunger and thirst? The purpose of fasting is to grow in taqwa. You see the 30 days of Ramadan, they'll come and go. They come and go. They come quickly. They go quickly. They are ayam ma'adoodat. As the Quran says, just a few days when you really consider it. Take advantage of it. It's going to be here. Take advantage. One of my teachers said that when you feel those uncomfortable pangs of hunger and thirst while fasting, feed yourself, he said. Feed yourself the spiritual sustenance of the vikr of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Spend the time that you would normally spend eating breakfast or lunch and read some Quran or better yet, memorize the Quran or just say Alhamdulillah. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he said, Alhamdulillah, tamla ul-mizan. Just say this over and over. He said, Subhanallah wa Alhamdulillah, tamla ani. Ma bina suma'i wa al-ar. Right? He said that Alhamdulillah fills the scales. He said, Subhanallah wa Alhamdulillah, fill what is between the heaven and the earth. These are weighty of Qar. We don't see the weight in this world. They don't weigh, what does speech weigh? It doesn't weigh anything but on the Yom al-Qiyamah, speech has weight. Adhqar, vikr has weight on the Yom al-Qiyamah. The scales are calibrated differently on the Yom al-Qiyamah. Meditate upon the names of Allah. Satiate yourself with spiritual sustenance. The ma'rifah Allah is Qut al-Qulub according to Abu Talib al-Maki. Qut al-Qulub, literally the food of the hearts. With this type of food, you can be gluttonous. Eat as much as you want and eat copious amounts of during Ramadan. We will continue with our reflections, our final reflection in the next session. Insha'Allah ta'ala. Until then, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.