 I start in the name of Allah, the Beneficent and the Merciful. I seek salvation from shaitan the accursed. Dearest brothers and sisters from all across the world. May peace, blessings and protection of Allah be with you at all times. I would like to welcome you again to another episode of the Ramadan show, exclusively here on Imam Hussain's channel. Today we'll be covering more facets about this holy month, so that this show can be your one-stop shop for the month of Ramadan. I would like to once again ask you humbly to send in your videos, your pictures from wherever you are in the world, so we can air that on our show. We can show the variety and the ways in which people prepare for this holy month. I would also like to invite you to join me in the programme and the ways in which people prepare for this holy month. I would also like to ask you to join us on social media using the hashtag IHTVRamadan on Twitter. On Facebook you can join us on Instagram and on YouTube and shout out this episode will be uploaded tomorrow. Finally I would like to start this episode with a saying from the Holy Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. Where he says, human beings are like minds of gold and silver. This means that human beings have a lot of potential. If you think of a mind, a mind which has not been cultivated yet, the ore hasn't been taken out yet. A mind is just a mind until all the materials are taken out. In the same way in this holy month we can turn those minds into real gold and silver and try and achieve our potential. Insha'Allah we pray over these coming nights that we can do that. For today's episode, insha'Allah we will be talking about one particular type of a'amal, something that we should all try to be striving for during these sacred nights and that is repentance. Imam Ja'far al-Sadik has said, there is no man who Allah did not forgive who had felt ashamed of his misdeed. Whenever a man feels ashamed of his fault and then begs the pardon from Allah SWT, he forgives all of his sins. Repenting over one's sins with heartfelt remorse is called Tawba. A man should understand that Allah SWT would be displeased with him if he commits a sin and he should not forget that his Lord is able to see whatever he does. You see, Allah SWT, because of the love he has for us is willing to accept our repentance but as long as we do it sincerely, as long as we do it from the heart, Allah SWT has given us guidance on how to repent through the Holy Qur'an and through the guidance and the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt, alayhim as-salam. So let's talk a little bit about repentance. We will cover what sort of repentance is, what the perfect repentance is, what is true Tawba, what are the merits of Tawba and finally, why not doing Tawba can lead to a black heart? In a narration, it is said that Amir al-Mu'minin was once told or someone said to him, Astaghfirullah, I seek forgiveness from God. Amir al-Mu'minin said to him, may your mother mourn for you. Do you know what Istaghfar is? Verily, Istaghfar is a degree of the people of high station and it is a word that means six things. Number one is remorse over the past. Number two, a resolution never to return to it again. Number three, to return to others their formerly usurped rights. Number four, that you fulfill every duty that you neglected in order to satisfy your obligation in respect to it. Number five, that you attend to the flesh of your body that has grown on unlawful nourishment so that it melts away as a result of grief and mourning and your skin adheres to your bones after which new flesh grows in its place. And number six, that you make your body taste the pain of obedience in the same way it has earlier tasted the pleasure of sin. When you have done these things, then say Astaghfirullah. Allah, my Majestic has talked about repentance and true Tawba and how we can achieve it, how we go about doing it. He's highlighted three facets and inshallah if we try and stick to those, we can be successful. He says number one is to repent purely and piously. Don't repent because you're scared or you fear hell or because you have a lure towards paradise. Repent because you're truly ashamed that you've let Allah SWT down. You've disobeyed him. Number two, do Tawba in such a way that it may serve as a lesson to other people. A person should repent with such sincerity and such persistence that just by observing the repentance other sinners may be inclined towards doing Tawba as well. In this way, it becomes a means for guidance or a means for guidance. Number three, he should self-criticize thoroughly and honestly. His worship should be so intense that the radiance of faith removes the darkness of sins. He must be so involved with performing good deeds that the bad deeds are compensated for. So we've talked about what true Tawba is and how we can do it. Now let's talk about the merits of Tawba. The merits of Tawba come in ten. Number one, it makes a man believe in God. Number two, bad deeds are turned into good deeds. Number three, the angels also pray for the person that repents. Number four, the repentant will go to paradise. Number five, Tawba gives happiness in life. Number six, the prayers are accepted by that person that does Tawba. Number seven, Tawba brings good tidings from Allah SWT. Number eight, any number of sins will be pardoned through the action of Tawba. Number nine, breaking of Tawba does not nullify repentance. Number ten, the door of Tawba is open forever. So let's talk about repentance. Repent as soon as you sin, Allah SWT says, and spend out of what we've given you before your death comes so that you should say, my Lord, why did I not respite me? Why did I not respite me to a nearer term so that I should have given arms and have been of the doors of good deeds? Allah does not respite a soul when its appointed term has come and Allah is aware of what you do. In this explanation of the verse, it is said, man at the time of death tells the angel of death, please give me just one more day's respite so that I may repent for my sins and be prepared for the journey to the hereafter. The angel of death says, the days of your life are now over. The person says, just give me one hour's respite. The angel replies, your moments of life are over. The door of Tawba is now closed. So having talked about Tawba, we come to what happens to someone who doesn't repent, whose sins are so bad that now they are immune to repentance. Their hearts become so hard that they do not feel the need to repent anymore. This is called a black heart. When a person does not do Tawba, the heart becomes so polluted that the shame that sin brings isn't there anymore. They become desensitized to that and the dirt accumulates and accumulates and it becomes a vicious circle. Darkening of the heart leads to more darkening and thus it's a downward spiral. The stage comes with the hearts totally black and cannot be cleansed anymore. Imam Muhammad Bakr, alaihi salam, says, for human hearts nothing is more harmful than sin. When the mirror of the heart becomes black because of sins, the blackness covers the entire soul, then man tumbles down from his original position and gets separated from the truth. Now that we've talked about Tawba, what it is, what happens if you don't do Tawba and if sins accumulate, we know that Tawba is one of the most important elements of achieving spirituality, of achieving nearness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's why in these very special nights in this holy month of Ramadan the halls of mercy are wide open. It is important to take advantage of that and to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for nearness to him. And by doing that, you are actually softening your heart, becoming more open to asking for forgiveness. Insha'Allah when you do that, you become not only a better person, but as we've said, you become a guidance for other people and improve society at large. Insha'Allah let's all pray that in these following nights Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala listens to our repentance and is able to cry and ask him for forgiveness. And when we do that, we will see elevation within our own status. Insha'Allah in this world and in the hereafter. It has been reported on the authority of Imam Ali ibn Musa ar-Rava, a.s. who said, if one asks, why is it that the fasts were made obligatory, exclusively in the month of Ramadan and not in other months, it would be said, that this is because the month of Ramadan is the month in which Allah, as Zawajal, had revealed the Holy Quran. During this segment of the show, insha'Allah we go through many communities from around the world and we try and see how their preparation differs from one place to another, how their preparation for Iftar, for example, differs from east to west, how countries around the world prepare their day-to-day lives for the month of Ramadan. Today we go to Ottawa, which is in Canada, specifically to one of the Iraqi communities there. However, there's many, many communities and it's a very multicultural and multi-dimensional society. Ottawa lies within Canada. Canada is a very vast country, so that's why we're covering this specifically as one area. In Ottawa, as there are many different types of communities, you have your Indo-Pakistani community, Iraqi community, Lebanese community, Iranian community, for example. During the nights of Ramadan, they go to their own Hussainias and because of the time that Iftar falls, because of the long hours of the day and the fact that Iftar is quite late at night, they try to hold the Majlis before the Salat time. So they have the Majlis and then Salat and then Iftar afterwards. As they see, this is a sensible way to allow as many children and young people to come to the mosque as possible and also those people that work, because after all, in Canada, because it's a non-Muslim country, the working hours don't change very much, so people try to get to sleep early, if possible, so that they're ready for work the next day. Also in Canada, what they do is, during big nights, like the nights of Eid or during the day of Eid, communities invite one another to their place or to their Hussainias so they can celebrate as one large community. Because in the city, the Hussainias are quite small in terms of population, when they come together and celebrate together, it makes the event even more special. Insha'Allah, I humbly request you to please send in your videos to the channel. Insha'Allah, we can see how people from all over the world prepare for this holy month, how they change their day-to-day lives in terms of work, in terms of Iftar, and only we get your videos and your pictures, your blogs, we can also air those on our TV station for the rest of the world to benefit from it. It's amazing to see how so many different communities from over the world have slightly different lifestyles in order to accommodate for that month, but the goal is always one, and the goal is always to achieve nearness to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Dearest Imam Hussein TV viewers, Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. Welcome to Imam Hussein TV 3. I congratulate you and the Islamic Ummah on the holy month of Ramadan. Today, we are in another corner of the holy city of Karbala to show you the atmosphere of the holy month of Ramadan in the holy city of Karbala. So stay tuned with us. Dearest Imam Hussein TV viewers, I have one of the store owners here in the holy city of Karbala. Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. May Allah bless you. We would like to know if you would like to know about the atmosphere of Ramadan in the holy city of Karbala. Welcome. My name is Al-Azhaq Mehdi Al-Shami. I am from the Karbala family. Actually, we were not living in the area of Al-Mukhain. Now, we are living in Karbala. From that time until now, it is a place of worship. Praise be to Allah. It is a place of worship and tradition. And especially the holy month. We are gathered in the family. Before the normal days, we were not gathered in the middle of the night. It is the month of Ramadan. It is the month of Karim. It is the month that we gather in Al-Fatour. Praise be to Allah. May Allah bless the servants of Karbala and the people who come to Karbala. May Allah bless you. I asked brother Ala about the atmosphere of the holy city of Karbala here and during the month of Ramadan. He is saying that since our childhood. Until now, we have tried to keep our traditions during the normal days of the year. Usually, the families are busy doing their work. But on the holy month of Ramadan, the family get together and reunited, especially during the time of Iftar and Suhoor. Tell us what you would like to say to the viewers about the holy month of Ramadan? Actually, this is the month of Karim. The most important thing is the mercy and the mercy. We always face Allah SWT. We pray for our Muslim Ummah and for the Iraqi people. We say that Allah is showing us in this holy month, that Allah SWT is answering our prayers. He is showing us these things, these things that we pray for. I asked brother about what his supplications are during the holy month of Ramadan. He is saying that and he is asking you to pray for the Islamic Ummah and especially Iraq. And as you know, the status of Iraq is very harsh nowadays. And he is asking you and he is praying for the reunion of the Iraqi society, insha'Allah. For today's episode, as we talk about medical tips and health advice, insha'Allah I want to talk about a condition which affects many people in our communities. It affects the young, it can affect the old. It's a condition which is very prevalent in society as well. So insha'Allah, over the course of this segment, I want to talk about asthma. I'll talk about what asthma is. I'm sure many of you at home have heard of it. But don't appreciate the causes of it. How you can stop it from happening if you do have the condition. And thirdly, if you do have the condition, how you can effectively take your medication to control the condition. Asthma is essentially an obstructive condition of the lungs. So what happens is that for whatever reason, some people have allergies which cause it. Allergies to dust mites or allergies to specific foods or they may be exacerbated by certain medications or even some people when they get stressed out, they get asthma attacks. And what happens is that the lining of the lungs has a specific type of cell which is called a mass cell which releases a chemical called histamine. Over time, what happens is that this actually makes the airway smaller and as it makes the airway smaller, it takes more pressure to push through the airway. And that's why typically with someone with asthma who's having an asthma attack, they will say they're getting wheezy because what happens is they're pushing air out against a restricted or an obstructed airway. And that's why it makes that wheezing sound. For people who suffer from asthma, it is very important that they stay away from the precipitants. So some people may find that precipitants are allergies. So things like cat fur or dog fur or pollen or dust mites, people find that many allergens can cause asthma. For people who are not sure if they have asthma or not, a good idea would be to keep a chart. So typically with asthma, you have fluctuations through the day. So if you're getting breathless every day, keep a chart and just keep a diary of when you're feeling breathless at what specific times of the day. And go and see your doctor. The doctor will give you something called a peak flow meter. A peak flow meter is something we use to assess severity of asthma because our lungs are designed in a very specific way and people of a specific height, of a specific gender, of a specific age are able to breathe out a specific amount or a specific volume of air per second. And that's what we use in order to measure how bad someone's asthma is or even if they have asthma. What we do then is give them a peak flow meter and asthma to keep a diary in the morning and in the evening. And because of your hormones that are released at different times of the day, your ability to blow out your air changes through the day as your airway circumference changes as well due to the hormones that are running through your body. However, a more sophisticated way of measuring if someone's got asthma or not is something called spirometry, which is breathing exercising or breathing tests. And we give them something called salbutamol which I'll talk about in a bit. It's a medication that we use which treats asthma. And what we do is we get them to breathe out first normally and then after that we do breathing tests after giving them salbutamol and see if that inhaler makes any difference to their breathing. And specific boundaries have been found by leading studies that show that if there's a fluctuation between the two readings of a specific percentage then the person can be diagnosed with asthma. Now, if you have asthma what's the best way to treat it, number one? And number two, if it's not being treated what else can you do? So the first thing I want to do is talk about some of the medications. So you have salbutamol which is your main sort of treatment. We call it the one that you take as and when you need it. What it does is it provides it's a beta agonist it acts on the beta receptors in the lungs which are actually work on adrenaline or your sympathetic nervous system which I've talked about in the previous episodes. And what happens is when that happens it eases the airway and it allows the smooth muscle in the airway to relax and therefore expanding the airway and thus reducing the risk or reducing the exacerbation. Another medication is called iprotropium which is again works in a similar way but this one works in a muscarinic receptor. Muscarinic receptors are different to the beta receptors and they work in the opposite way. So one is an agonist which is the salbutamol and the antagonist which works against the muscarinic receptors is the iprotropium. And after that for people who have prolonged problems with asthma we give them steroid inhalers and what steroid inhalers do when I mentioned before that the specific antibodies which are found in the linings of the lungs which is an immunoglobulin, IgE these steroid inhalers actually stop the inflammation that is caused and essentially it is the inflammation that develops over many many days or weeks or months that actually causes problems with the lungs so if you can stop the inflammation from happening you can stop recurrent exacerbations and also with people who have really bad asthma if you have asthma that's prolonged and it causes severe breathing issues it can also cause long-term damage to the lungs themselves so the steroid inhaler actually helps with that. Now studies have shown that there is actually a new type of inhaler that's come in called simbicort that's the trade name but what it is it's a mixture of a steroid inhaler and a beta agonist together and at the moment we're giving these to young people and what we do is we ask them to take it regularly the steroid inhaler you take it regularly and the salbutamol you take it as and when you need it however with this inhaler you take it regularly as well as taking it as and when you need it and as a result it's found to actually work very well so often we give this to people who have just recently been diagnosed with asthma who are not already being treated with medication finally if nothing is working by the stage where asthma has become so difficult to treat where no inhalers work we do try other medications which I won't really go into because therefore specialist use only and if it gets so bad then people really should be referred on to a lung specialist who can actually help them to find the right medication to control their symptoms my advice to anyone who does suffer from asthma is firstly think of sensible things try and keep away from precipitants things that will make your asthma worse so dust try and avoid smoking try and avoid staying away try and avoid being in the presence of things like fur dust mites if that's possible there's other things that set off the asthma such as stress try and stay away from stress inshallah I've talked about that before so try and use that advice to try and help you my next piece of advice is stay compliant with your medication take your medications regularly if you're supposed to take a specific inhaler in the morning and in the evening take it at those times if your asthma is getting worse see a doctor so you can increase and step up your medication afterwards inshallah what I will do is go on to talk about other conditions from tomorrow onwards but what I suggest you do if your medication is not working or if you feel that your asthma is getting worse is go and see your doctor immediately because what they can do is they can step up your medication or they can increase the dose of the medication and try on something else to see if it makes any difference finally, last but not least what I would advise you to do is see your doctor regularly they can measure your peak flow the thing I was talking about before to see if your condition is getting worse without you realizing the other thing is if you're finding that you're getting more weasier you're finding it difficult to play sports explain that to your doctor during your reviews GPs or doctors will usually call their patients back about once every six months or once every year for a regular checkup to see how the asthma is going make sure you attend those checkups to see if you need to step up your medication however, if you don't think that this is helping then ask your GP to try and send you to a specialist if you're finding that your asthma is so brittle that you're getting recurrent exacerbations I hope that this information has been useful to you like I've said before this is a very common condition not only in our community but in society in general I'm hoping that by listening to this information and by processing it and applying it to your lives you can lead more healthy lifestyles and inshallah during this month of Ramadan as well as we're all fasting obviously it can become more stressful on our bodies and that can manifest itself in other ways like having worsening of your medical condition so inshallah if you stick to the sensible advice that I've given you you won't suffer and inshallah it will help you to become stronger physically and also spiritually Prophet Muhammad and the Ahlul Bayt exemplified the highest virtues of humanity including living lives in restraint among the poorest and tending to their needs in spite of their poverty it was through this remarkable conduct that they were able to change the hearts of the people around them back then unfortunately even we when we do charitable acts some people may speak ill of us we do not see the benefit of it however the following story illustrates that sometimes our charity may have a bigger impact than we can actually imagine one day Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave 300 dinars to Imam Ali so Imam Ali decided to give all these 300 dinars to the poor as after night prayer so after he left the mosque he seen a woman and gave 100 dinars the next day he heard the people of Medina talking and saying that Imam Ali has given money to a corrupt woman he was saddened by this and decided that the next day he will give another 100 dinars to another person when the next day came Ali ibn Abi Talib after leaving the mosque he gave 100 dinars to another person a man the next day he actually heard the people talking of Medina talking that Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib gave money to a thief and he was also saddened by this so Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib recommitted himself to give the rest of the 100 dinars to another person that he saw after night prayer and after coming out of the mosque he seen another man where he gave the 100 dinars to the next day the people of Medina were also complaining saying that Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib gave 100 dinars to a wealthy man Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib was heartbroken by this and wanted to see Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam Prophet Muhammad told Ali rest assured the angel jibrail has told me all about this and Allah the Almighty accepted your acts of charity after you gave 100 dinars to that corrupt woman he repented to Allah swt and used that money for marriage however the thief when you gave 100 dinars to the thief he also repented to Allah swt and used that money towards opening an honest business the third person that you gave the rich person you gave money to he himself has not given charity for many many years and after you gave 100 dinars he went off saying to himself how could I be so stingy where Ali ibn Abi Talib has nothing for himself he gave me 100 dinars and as a rich person I haven't even given the poor rate in many years so he figured out how much he owes for the poor rate and separated it and gave it to charity respected viewers brothers and sisters I would like to leave you with this quote from Nahjul Balaghah by Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib who says don't feel ashamed if the amount of charity is small because to refuse the needy act of greater shame in this episode I want to dedicate the poem to Abul Fadil there is a poem that was written by my dear friend Nouri Sardar which is titled if Abba sends back your wish it's a very deep poem that we recited in his cd and it's essentially highlighting the characteristics of Abul Fadil it's a challenge to say if Abul Fadil ever rejects your wish then the poet will close his pen forever inshallah I want to present it to you and I want you to think of Abul Fadil as I'm reciting let the soother of death soothe your wrath let the soother of death trust mine it can trust its words to you please his eyes wander if Abba sends back your wish I'll close my pen forever if Abba sends back your wish I'll close my pen forever go towards his blessed door knock on it as a bear if Abba sends back your wish I'll close my pen forever if you're by the grave his lovers crack a scarf and throw top of his grave you'll see, give your hands away you'll see, give your hands away don't stay in your fear speak to Hussain's flag bear if Abba sends back your wish I'll close my pen forever tell him Abba sent those children the soldiers who argued who would fight by Qasim I'll close my pen forever if Abba sends back your wish I'll close my pen forever I'll close my pen forever This is because the month of Ramadan is the month in which Allah as the wajal had revealed the Holy Quran of another show I would like to leave you with a final thought a little message to ponder over and inshallah as you ponder over and reflect on it it will help you to try and understand your place in this world and that final thought is that as servants of the Ahlul Bayt never be ashamed of what you do whether you're a reciter or you are someone that helps other people in the mosque whether you do something like serve the tea or the food serving the Ahlul Bayt is the ultimate goal and what you do to try and achieve that doesn't matter I would like to once again ask you to send in your videos I would like to ask you to join us on social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube finally I would ask you to humbly pray for us and inshallah the most important thing of all pray for the reappearance of the 12th Imam alayhi salam and with these final words I bid you farewell wa salamu alaykum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh