 I start in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and I seek refuge from shaitan the accursed. My dearest viewers, brothers and sisters from all over the world, may the peace, blessings, and the protection of Allah be with you all. Before going into the next episode where we'll be going more into the spiritual side as well as the physical side of the month of Ramadan, we'll be giving you health tips as well as talking a little bit about how you can refine yourself spiritually. I want to start off with a short saying from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, alayhi salam, where he says, walking or going to the aid of another mu'min brother, when you walk that distance is as though you're walking in between Safa and Marwa, and that is the high station of being someone who is able to come to the aid of a fellow brother. Insha'Allah you'll be able to join us today on this show by involving yourself by social media, so you can join us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube once this video is uploaded onto there. In this episode, in this segment where we're looking at spiritual refinement, I want to focus upon a specific trait that has been mentioned in Dua Makarim al-Akhlaq by Imam Sajjad al-Alihi salam, where he talks about iman, iman means faith, and he talks about how we can refine our faith and complete our faith essentially. And he talks about practical steps that we can take in order to make that happen. There's three main steps that he's highlighted so that we can accomplish this. The first one is to set a condition with yourself. The second one is to, once you've set this condition, is to assess your actions and to see if they've met the conditions that you've set. And thirdly is to acknowledge that there's consequences to your actions. If the action has been good, and if it's something that goes in accordance with what you've set out, then you can reward yourself. And if it's the other way around where you have defied what you've set out, then it is up to you to acknowledge that and to punish yourself. And you take full responsibility of your actions. One specific way in which you can achieve this completion of iman is to allow yourself to detach from this materialistic world, to detach yourself from your carnal desires, from this lowly dunya that we live in. And when you do that, you can focus in on the mission that you're trying to accomplish, focus in upon your nia. In the Holy Qur'an, in Surah Fajr, Allah SWT says, He is referring, or he talks about the soul that is satisfied, the soul that is at peace. In some tafsir it is said that this is referring to Imam al-Hussain. Now, you have to think to yourself that when Allah SWT talks about this, he's talking about a soul which is at peace, which is at such peace that it's achieved closeness to Allah SWT. And we have to think to ourselves, how can we achieve that level of peace, that level of satisfaction so that we can also achieve that station? One of the ways that is highlighted, that we can do this, is to stop thinking about other people, stop thinking about other people's negatives and their downsides, stop judging other people. Because after all, you can only judge another person when you're perfect yourself. And we in our souls have so many imperfections that the first step towards achieving that satisfaction, that peace, is to start working on your own nafs, to start working on those aspects of your soul which need improvement. When we look at the Ahl al-Bait for inspiration, we see Sayyidah Fatima, SAW, and she has two, laqad, two titles, which have been given to her, which Aradiyah and Mardiyah, which literally translators, she is satisfied with Allah SWT, and Allah SWT is satisfied with her. And it just shows the station that she reached where it was complete perfection, complete peace and harmony with life, and that allowed her to attain that closeness to Allah SWT. We must follow that example that she set and use things that she did in her life, trace that she had in order to try and achieve that station. Another way we can practically try and achieve closeness to Allah SWT, which I've mentioned on a previous show, is to try to stop complaining, to count our blessings, to look at what Allah SWT has given us. And it is only when you do that, you actually realize the mercy of Allah SWT, and you can only achieve satisfaction when you're happy with what you've got and when you're content with what's inside your heart and what's around you, what Allah has given you and what mercy is bestowed upon you. Achieving the ridhah of Allah SWT is an integral part of spiritual growth, and essentially it is part of a long spiritual journey that you are partaking in throughout the course of your life. And that is your ultimate intention, your ultimate goal is to try and achieve the pleasure of Allah SWT. Another example that we have from the Ahl al-Bayt is Imam al-Hussain, alaihi salam, where on the plains of Karbala, he achieved the ultimate sacrifice, and his only goal throughout this journey of his was to achieve the satisfaction of Allah SWT. That's why I mentioned earlier on that that particular ayah was revealed unto him and a lot of tafseer say that it is referring to Imam al-Hussain. So the question is, how can we also achieve that station? I mean, a lot of you will be watching this and thinking they are ma'asumin. We are not ma'asumin. How can we practically take steps in order to achieve that closest to Allah SWT? How can we achieve such a high station? And there are practical steps that you can take in order to achieve that closest to Allah SWT. And I'll try and break some of these down so that you can follow them in your day-to-day life. And insha'Allah by the end of the month of Ramadan you will be a new person and insha'Allah you will find yourself more spiritually elevated and close to Allah SWT. The first of these is willpower. So never give up. Always have the will to continue. There are many times in your life where you will falter, you will lapse. And essentially the intention that you have, the goal that you have doesn't come to fruition. And sometimes that is not through your own fault. You try your best and you do things with the best of intentions. But sometimes as human beings we're not perfect. We have limitations, we have weaknesses. And Allah SWT at the end of the day does say that He will only test you to the boundaries of you and the limits of what you can stretch to. So if you give your best shot and you cannot achieve what you set out to achieve, never lose hope, never give up. Because remember Allah SWT is the ultimate giver and He's the ultimate guide. He will always guide you towards Him. Secondly, two very important things actually. The first one is Salah. Never give up on your Salah. Always pray on time and give importance to Salah because that is one of the ways in which you can achieve the ultimate closest to Allah SWT because it is one of the few times in the day where you sit down in the presence of your Lord and you communicate with your Lord. And also don't forget that the secrets of life and the mysteries of this universe, the secrets to your own destiny lie within the Holy Quran. Allah has promised, He said that He's mapped out everything in the universe within the Quran. But how many of us actually pick up the Quran and read it? Not only read it but try to understand it. Try and read the tafsir that comes with it. It is really important. Sometimes it is better to read one ayat of the Quran and to read it properly, to understand the meanings and to read the tafsir rather than reading many, many pages. So sometimes just read one ayat and contemplate about it. Try and see what Allah SWT is saying to you and what message is trying to send to you. Fasting, this month of Ramadan is a very, very special month. It's a month of blessings and it's a month in which you can achieve spiritual elevation. Use this month to your advantage and use it to constantly refine and to think about your iman, to think about your sincerity and ultimately it will guide you towards completion of your faith. Essentially Allah SWT wants you to come close to Him so that He can come closer to you. Because surely Allah has always said that take one step towards me and I'll take 70 back towards you. So use this month of Ramadan in order to get closer to Allah SWT and never ever forget the hereafter, never forget your own death because as I've said in a previous episode it is only when you constantly think about your death do you constantly think about your Lord because your Lord has said that every single soul will taste death and each and every one of us will go through that journey into the hereafter. So always remember that because at the end of the day that is our eternal life and we hope that we can achieve closeness to Allah SWT so that in that eternal life we can be in heaven and we can show Allah SWT that we achieve nearness to Him. And as I've said before always aim or try and achieve closeness to the Ahlul Bayt, alayhi salam The reason being is that Allah SWT has sent representatives upon this earth personalities and individuals who are there to guide us personalities who are there to show us the traits that we need to instill within ourselves in order to attain closeness to the Almighty and what we have to do is look at the lives of these personalities from the Holy Prophet, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him to our 12th Imam and we can see during their lives they've been through so many different events they've seen so much during their lives and they've been tested in very different ways and we can all relate to their lives in somewhere or another use their lives and allow that to guide you because if you do that, that is the key to getting close to Allah SWT and finally, never forget like I said at the beginning your near, your intention is the most important thing if your near is clean and if you're sincere and your intention is pure Allah SWT is the ultimate of guides he will guide you towards him remember that no matter what you do Allah looks at your intention and he looks at how you use that intention how you reassess that intention in order to get near to him so inshaAllah let's pray that we can use this month in order to acquire these good traits these positive traits so that we can not only improve ourselves as human beings but also attain the nearest, nearness to Allah SWT Imam Ali, commander of the Faithful with the peace and blessings of Allah upon him has said the month of Ramadan has approached you it is the chief of all months and the beginning of the year in this episode we're going to be looking around the world to see how people from all walks of life from east to west from all countries around the globe prepare for the day to day lives in the month of Ramadan today the country we're going to be looking at is the country of Morocco Morocco is an Islamic country that lies in North Africa and borders the Mediterranean the usual day to day working life when it's not Ramadan for people who are living there is that they start work bright and early at 8 in the morning and they break up for lunch at 12 and then they have something that's known as a siesta which is quite popular in the Mediterranean countries due to the hot weather where they break up from work from 12 till 2 and they have a short nap or a sleep and they have some lunch and after that they work from 2 until 6 in the month of Ramadan however the cycle of work changes so that they can adopt their lives to prepare and to make the most of the month of Ramadan and the way in which it changes is that their working day starts at 9 o'clock in the morning and ends at 2 and as a result they have a shorter working day and after 2 o'clock they go home and they either rest or they prepare themselves by praying the salah and doing amal if they wish so and after that they go and the system that they use over there is that relatives invite one another to their house on a router basis so for example if you have one family they would invite the extended family to their house for food on the day that they are routed to cook and this happens throughout the month of Ramadan and slowly the family members bond through this and also they can visit each other on a regular basis after if part time the men of the family they would usually go to the mosque in order to participate in the amal, in the salah and as a result there is a strong bond within the communities where brothers meet other brothers and they can talk about things they can join together in the amal and pray together as one Morocco isn't the only country that adopts this nature of preparing for the month of Ramadan and preparing day to day for the coming of Ramadan the way in which other countries in North Africa and in other Muslim countries around that area they prepare, it's a similar sort of day to day life and in Morocco the diet because it's bordering the Mediterranean Sea is what we call a typical Mediterranean diet which is that they eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables they have fresh fish which comes from the sea and also they have tropical fruits or vegetables which grow from vines such as olives as a result the Moroccan diet and the Mediterranean diet actually as a whole is one of the healthiest diets that one can have they break their fast they open their fast on dates and milk milk being a doctor I know that milk is probably one of the best rehydration fluids that there is due to its dairy content, fat content it stays in the stomach for a longer period of time and therefore the fluid in the milk actually dissipates into the body much slower so it keeps it rehydrated through the day and also they eat a lot of lentils and soups which also helps them to stay rehydrated as we will be progressing through this month and going through the shows I shall be exploring more of the countries from around the world but it's been an interesting insight into the way that the Moroccans have a unique and adapted system which allows them to make the most this month finally as I request you every day from wherever you are around the world wherever you're watching the show from I would really like for you to send in your videos so that we can air those and show the world what it's like how you prepare your day-to-day life for the month of Ramadan so that everyone else can see and we can share also the variety of ways in which people from around the world do prepare their day-to-day lives for the month of Ramadan Dearists Imam Hussein TV viewers Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh Peace and blessings of Allah upon each and every one of you another souvenir in the holy city of Karbala are these different clothes people here after visiting the holy shrine of Imam Hussein and Abul-Fadl Al-Abbas of course take different types of souvenirs with them home one of the souvenirs are these clothes that you can see behind me these clothes are specified for Hijab people from Iran from different countries in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia or Emirates they come to the holy city of Karbala they buy different types of clothes to make their own Hijab Dearists Imam Hussein TV viewers I have one of the brothers he's a store owner here in the holy city of Karbala Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh Imam Hussein TV viewers Imam Al-Raza Alhamdulillah we are not the believers of Allah but the viewers of Imam Hussein they come to the holy city of Karbala the viewers are always present the market is very good and the future is not a problem according to Iranian viewers and for the security the security of Karbala is not a problem it is not a problem because there is no security Imam Al-Sadiq market between Imam Al-Mahdi and Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq this market is considered the center of Karbala because every Zahireen and Zahireen is considered foreign, Iranian, Khalid from all parts of Turkmenistan any Islamic country they come to Karbala they come to this market because Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq Imam Al-Mahdi and the market is safe and for Karbala any Zahireen they come if inside the city it is safe and on the outside it is safe the security forces are not afraid that it is a Zahireen and the people of the market Al-Sadiq market are always serving the visitors we were the owners of the shops we did not break the Zahireen and Al-Sadiq market brother Hassan is congratulating you on the holy month of Ramadan and he is saying that my store is between the holy Maqam of Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq he has a store here he sells different types of clothes here he is saying that different visitors from different countries from Iran, from other countries from Armenia and other countries come to the holy city of Karbala and visit the holy shrine of Imam Al-Hussain they come here to buy souvenirs to take back home with them regarding security he is saying that the holy city of Karbala is totally secure and all the roads that leads to holy city of Karbala there are no problems with the roads and the roads are open and the stores are open till late at night and everyone can come to this specific market with them in today's episode regarding medical and health tips we are going to be talking about hypertension hypertension to those of you who are not from the medical field is essentially high blood pressure now blood pressure high blood pressure can be a risk factor for heart disease strokes but before we talk about that we are going to try and understand exactly what blood pressure is how to control it blood pressure is simply the pressure that is produced when the blood is pumped out by the heart the reason why you require blood pressure is so that the blood can go around all the major organs in the body the organs such as the brain such as the kidneys and even the heart itself requires blood to be transfused or transferred around the body if your blood pressure is low what happens is that the blood that is getting pumped out of the heart is not being pumped out with enough force to get to vital organs such as your brain and some people with very low blood pressure can find that they get faint or they get they have syncope they have faints now for them it is important to stay rehydrated but low blood pressure can also be a sign of good health as well so they need to have low blood pressure because the amount of effort they need from the heart to get the blood into the vital organs such as the brain is much less and therefore their blood pressure naturally is a lot lower so for them it is nothing to worry about however for the average person for the lay person it is very important to have a normal blood pressure now in the medical field day to day I personally look at lots and lots of people with blood pressures some of them have low blood pressures the average blood pressure for any adult is 120 over 80 which is 120 is the top number and 80 is the bottom number the reason why we have two numbers because one is known as the systolic blood pressure which is the pressure that you get when the blood is being actively pumped by the heart and the other one is the diastolic pressure which is the pressure that is produced when the heart is at rest now why is it important to keep an eye on the blood pressure because when the blood pressure gets too high so for example if it gets over 140 over 90 so when you have those two numbers and the top number is 140 and the bottom number is 90 we as doctors get a little bit concerned the reason being that studies have shown that a blood pressure above this level for most people for the average person is can be a sign of long term or can be the indication that is long term problems ahead so complications such as cardiovascular heart problems or strokes the reason being that high blood pressure when it gets too high it can cause force on the lining of the blood vessels so a lot of people who have high blood pressure can end up with strokes for example because what happens is when the blood is passing through at a high pressure it causes pressure or causes force on the lining of the blood vessel and causes the formation of plaques and plaques building up over time can block blood vessels and therefore causing strokes or if it's in the heart the coronary vessels it can cause heart attacks the other complication of blood pressures very very high blood pressures when you're talking about the systolic number being about 200 is it increases your risk of the blood vessels actually bursting so a lot of people with very high blood pressures can actually have hemorrhages which is the blood vessels actually bursting and causing bleeds so it's really really important that if you have high blood pressure that you don't allow it to get too high because if you do then it leaves you at risk of developing these long term and short term complications of high blood pressure my job here today is to try and give you tips and to give you advice as a doctor and as a medical practitioner on how I can help you and in order to give you tips to try and firstly assess whether you actually have a high blood pressure or not and secondly if you do what to do about it the first thing to do is my advice to anyone whether you're young or old if you're fit or unfit is to invest in a blood pressure monitor and if you do that then it would be wise to test your blood pressure at least once every six months in order to see if it's too high if it's too low if it's just about right the reason being is that high blood pressure is often a silent disease that a lot of people have that they don't know about and it's only when they coincidentally go to their doctors to have another problem checked it's flagged up and they get treatments commenced for that once it has been identified that you do have high blood pressure what are the different things you can do often the GPs or the doctors will give you a period of time in order to try and get the blood pressure down using your diet and exercise so it is really important to cut things out in your diet such as salt and also other things that can increase your risk of heart disease such as sugars which can cause diabetes and foods that are high in cholesterol the other thing you can do is exercise because exercise over a prolonged period of time has actually been shown to be beneficial in getting your blood pressure under control however if that is not possible often what happens is that medications are commenced often the doctors will start you on a medication which will be given to you based on studies for your particular race or for your particular age group because the studies have shown slightly different outcomes with different age groups and with different races I'm not going to go into that at the moment and I'm not going to go into specific medications at the moment as we don't have time but it's really important that once you start taking the medication that you monitor your blood pressure even more frequently so at least once a week or once every other week in order to see if the medication is effective your doctor will follow you up but it's important that you keep an eye on it yourself finally I just want to elaborate a little bit as to other things that you should look out for if you have high blood pressure so signs of stroke and heart attacks are really important to be aware of for anyone in fact inshallah I will touch upon these these diseases these problems in future shows but I think it is important for all people to be aware that high blood pressure is a risk factor for these conditions inshallah tomorrow we will be looking more into potential causes of heart disease and other risk factors and how we as people, as individuals can limit those risk factors and how we can have a healthy lifestyle and improve the longevity and the quality of our life inshallah living in a diverse world today one must know how to honour and treat one another despite the apparent differences we have such as creed, colour and belief because at the end of the day we are all brothers and sisters in humanity nobody exemplified these beliefs better than the Ahlul Bayt and Prophet Muhammad SAW particularly in the treatment of the Jews and Christians one day there was an elderly Christian man who had worked throughout his life but however he was unable to save anything for his old age he had gone blind and for this reason he became a beggar on the streets of Kufa one day Mam Ali bin Abi Talib the ruler of the Muslim world back then was walking in the streets of Kufa with his companions when he saw this man begging he turned to his companions with disgust and anger he said what is this we notice that Imam Ali bin Abi Talib said what is this and not who is this because this kind of action his ruling was unacceptable because he based his ruling on justice some of the people nearby explained the condition and the situation of that man and they said that he has no children to help him and he worked all his life but could not save anything for his old age but they said however he is a Christian Imam Ali bin Abi Talib turned to them and said so what there is no difference in my ruling Muslims and Christians he said how strange while he was strong and could see you took his labor from him and now that he is no longer useful to you you have abandoned him it is upon the government and it is the responsibility of the government and the society to support him for the rest of his life he turned to his companions and said go and arrange for him a lifelong pension from the state's treasury we wonder to see that Imam Ali bin Abi Talib a father like Ali bin Abi Talib when he does this kind of action we see on the day of Ashura even non-Muslims fought alongside Imam Hussain peace be upon him I would like to leave you with this quote by Ali bin Abi Talib peace be upon him where he says to you in creation peace be upon you for this episode I wish to recite an Ashid which is very close to my heart it's called anything for you and it's related to Allah SWT it talks about a relationship between a servant and his lord and how a servant would do anything for that lord single sacred rose on a mountain top that grows where nobody ever dares to go for you I'd climb that mountain high I would reach out to that sky if that rose was your desire don't you know that I would do anything for you I'd sail the seven seas walk the deserts in between anything to show my love because it brings me strength in love don't you know that Imam Ali, commander of the Faithful with the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said the month of Ramadan has approached you it is the chief of all months in the beginning of the year as we end this show I want to leave you with a few words a final thought something that can challenge your philosophy as well and insha'Allah can get us talking and thinking in order to try and allow us to improve as human beings to change our philosophies in order to get closer to Allah SWT the final thought I want to leave you with today is that Allah SWT has blessed all of us each and every one of us with the keys to our own destiny and those keys are with us from the moment we're born these are the keys that will open up doors for us and will give us the secrets to this world and the hereafter but the onus is upon us to find the door to which this key will fit insha'Allah I hope you think about that and you can join in this debate on Twitter by using the hashtag IHTVRAMADAN because surely when we get talking we can learn from each other insha'Allah I want you to remember us all in your du'as and especially the most important du'a of all please remember and please pray for the reappearance of Imam al-Hujjah because only when he reappears will the religion of Islam prevail finally I would welcome you to join me, your host Dr Shabiat Ijani again tomorrow for another episode of the Ramadan show and please do not forget to join us on social media, on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube insha'Allah look forward to seeing you all again very soon and insha'Allah we'll meet again wa salamu alaikum