 I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, in the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad and his family. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad and his family. May the peace and blessings of Allah and his family be upon Muhammad and his family. The Almighty Allah has stated in verse number 184 of Surah Al-Baqarah, the following holy verse. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. وَاَنْ تَصُومُ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ The Almighty Allah in the Surah Al-Baqarah, ayah 183 and 184 alludes to two important points about fasting. In verse 183, the Almighty states the whole purpose, the whole objective of fasting. He says, Oh those who believe, the fasting has been prescribed to you as it has been prescribed to people of antiquity, to those before you, so you reach piety. The purpose of fasting simply stated in this word, that you attain piety. The Almighty Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rank us based on our piety and God-fearing position. As Muslims, we all believe that our life will not end at the end of this physical life. Rather, we are changing, we are transforming to another eternal life that is called the hereafter. That is the most important life. That is the one that we should take extra care to make sure that we succeed in that life. In this life, we can spend it in any way we can, but we should make sure that our hereafter life should be with equality, should be successful. The Almighty Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that if you observe fasting, you will make sure that the quality of your life in the hereafter will be successful. You will be considered succeeding. Therefore, He says that when you observe fasting, you will be reaching piety. We know that God will rank us, will qualify us, and will put us in classifications based on our piety. If we have more piety, the better situated we will be. As the Almighty has said, Those who are the most fearful of God, the most pious, they will be considered the most favorable. So we gain our prestige, we gain our highest level in the hereafter by piety. The more pious we are, the better we will be in the hereafter. And fasting will make sure that we reach that level of piety. This is the purpose of fasting, and that all pertains to the hereafter, to the quality of life in the hereafter. However, the Almighty Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, due to His benefits in nature, He also makes sure that the quality of life in this life also should be good and should be healthy. Therefore, He says, If you observe fasting in this life, you will see the benefit of it in this life. You will be having a better quality of life. You will be considered healthy and respectful in this life. So those two great verses, number 183 and 184, both fix two of our lives. This life, the one that we live in currently, and the hereafter. Now we would like to see what kind of benefits we will be gaining by observing fasting. As we have alluded in the previous night, we said that it promotes our spiritual well-being. Fasting will help our spirituality. We have said that if we observe fasting with sincerity, with full intention to fulfill the desire of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then we are guaranteed for the following. Number one, we will be forgiven. All our sins will be forgiven. Second, all our deeds, actions, supplications, and prayers will be accepted. Third, we will be discharged from the hellfire. And fourth, number four, is that our actions, our deeds, our prayers, and supplications all will be multiplied. The rewards that we will get will be in multiplications, not a single one, not a twice, rather an ample. As the Almighty has said, ليلة القدري خير من الفشار, meaning that the good deeds that we do during that night of destiny, we will get the reward more than as if we do the same thing over and over for more than 30,000 nights in other nights than the night of destiny in the holy month of Ramallah. These benefits pertain to our spirituality. But what else? How does fasting help us on personal level? Number one, when we observe fasting, we increase our resistance. We will ensure that we will have resistance in the front of the internal enemy and the external enemy, the external danger. Internal enemy is presented by our commanding soul. That is always chasing us, pursuing us to do negatives, to do profanity, to do commit sins. This desirable or this commanding soul that always seeks desires does not stop at any limit. Always push us to increase our indulgence, to increase our physical desires and indulgence. It does not recognize any limit. Therefore, we need something to resist that commanding soul. Observing fasting will help our resistance in the front of that commanding soul. If we abstain from the lawful, permissible food and drink during the month of Ramallah, obviously we can resist the unlawful foods and drinks and acts that God has forbidden us from doing in other time of the year. If we can abstain from lawful things during the month of Ramallah, we will be able to abstain from unlawful things during the other times of the year that God has prohibited us from doing so. So that will increase our resistance in the front of the internal enemy, which is our commanding soul. It also helps us against the external threats. It will make us adapt. We get adopted to the harsh environments. Sometimes life is not easy. Many countries and nations face famine, shortage in food, shortage in a drink, starvation. Sometimes they are sanctioned by other countries, by other nations. Therefore, fasting will help us rehearse those moments if one day they arrive. Just like any country, any government, when they do military drills and military exercises, they make sure that their soldiers and the army as a whole are prepared for the moment of dangers. The same thing, when we observe fasting, we prepare our bodies and our soul for the time of danger, for the time of a scarce food and a drink. Here Ali Ibn Abi Talib, alayhi salam, has a beautiful word. He says, He said that the desert palms have, and trees, have a greater stamina and are sturdier than and more enjoyable than the green postures that always have water and irrigated regularly. Those desert palms and desert trees can weather the harsh environments. Then they can resist the heat, extreme heats, extreme cold in winter, in summer. Then they can resist this harsh environment. Just the opposite of the green posture, the green plants that can die once fall or winter arrives. They cannot resist the harsh environment. Why? Because they have never been exposed to such kind of environment. We need to make our soul and bodies sturdy by experiencing, by having some sort of exercise for feeling the hunger and thirst that will increase our resistance. The second benefit that we will get is on the social aspects. You see brothers and sisters, the society, the community is filled with different kind of people. With the rich, with the middle class and with the low class, with the poor people. They all live in one community. The social scientists say that many crimes and many unbreasts are due to this inequality of life. However, it is not for the inequality between rich and the poor, per se. Rather, it is the difference in feelings when the poor feels the difference between him and the rich. At that time, he will show resentment. He will show complaints and that is demonstrated in unbreasts and in troubles for the community. Therefore, to reduce that feeling of feeling that he's been singled out by the society or community. If the rich and poor are considered to be equal, you will end up seeing the society become safe. As Imam Al-Sadiq, says, the beauty of fasting is that you will see both the poor and the rich are equal on the same table. He says, So, both the rich and the poor become equal. Both will have same experience. Both will experience the hunger. Both will experience the third. So the rich can feel what the poor goes through during the normal times of the year. When the poor feels that the rich also is suffering just like him, that will become a solace for him. That will become a sign of relief. That will make sure the society will be tranquil and peaceful. And the third benefit that we will get from fasting is the health benefits, the medical benefits. You see, brothers and sisters, before the main source of problems, diseases and illnesses were shortage in food, were malnutrition. People didn't have enough and different varieties of food to eat and to maintain themselves. Therefore, they were suffering a lot. But nowadays, the situation has changed totally, 180 degrees. Nowadays, when you look carefully, you see that most of our chronic diseases and dangerous diseases are due to overfilled stomach. Because we eat a lot. One problem with obesity and obesity can cause multiple problems. It can cause diabetes. It can cause high blood pressure. It can cause elevation in cholesterol level in our bodies. And those are all sources of dangerous diseases that we will face that can endanger our life. So the best way, when we abstain from intake of extra food and a drink, we flush our body. We flush our veins and arteries. We clean up those things as we clean up our rooms, as we clean up our offices and our homes when we take away the oldest stuff. And we remove the dust from the furniture that we live in our homes. The same thing. Our body, our stomach needs to be resting. Therefore, when we do fasting, it is the best time for our stomachs and for our internal body organs to rest a little bit and flush our body from the extra material, the waste material. Insha'Allah, God willing, in the next episode, we will be talking more about the medical benefits of fasting. We will be talking more about the medical benefits of fasting. Peace be upon you all. Peace be upon you all. Peace be upon you all. Welcome back. In this segment, we are translating the beautiful words of this application of Jai Wushan el-Kerbir. We have reached segment number seven. The theme of segment number seven is that to disperse calamities and hardship. Where it says... It says... During our daily lives, we always face hardships and difficulties. Part of this nature is difficulties, hardships, and sometimes disasters and tragedies. We never know when a disaster strike, when a tragedy happens. We go about our daily activities. We start our day by going to work and doing our activities. But we never know what is hidden for us. Therefore, we take refuge to God to disperse these calamities away, to push them away. Otherwise, when we are independent, when we depend only on ourselves, we run into trouble. Therefore, we ask Allah SWT to fix our problems, to remove the troubles away. Ali ibn Abi Talib in the beautiful Dua al-Sadaah, he says... At the beginning of each day, in early morning, recite this beautiful Dua al-Sadaah. The Dua of morning, where the Imam says... Open the doors and gates of mercy and a blessing upon us. So, I don't waste our time fixing the problems. Troubleshooting, rather I should have a smooth day. Taking refuge to Allah SWT to disperse the calamity. The second word is... There is an inherent connection between the mistakes, sins and tragedies and disasters. Why? Because most of those disasters and tragedies and troubles that we see are due to our own actions. We are the ones who have caused them. We are the ones who were the main cause of those troubles. Today, look around you. You see the global warming, the greenhouse effects, the higher mortality due to cancers, to different kinds of viruses that every day they strike. They are due to what? Many of those are due to the mishandling of a human being of the nature. The Almighty Allah SWT said... When you see corruption, when you see spoil in the nature, it is all due to the work of a human being. It is us that we bring troubles. Then when we bring trouble, when we commit sins and crimes, God renews the tragedy. Imam Al-Radha has a beautiful word. He says... Whenever they invent a sin and wrongdoing, then... God will punish them with a new kind of punishment that they never knew. Look at the type of sickness. Start with cancer. Then we had back in the 80s, we had AIDS. Then did you hear about the mad cow disease? Did you hear about the SARS virus? Did you hear about the swine flu and recently the Zika virus? All of those are new inventions. Why? Due to us that invent mistakes and sins. God will invent these type of tragedies and disasters for us. So the Almighty says... When you ask repentance, when you get forgiven from your sins, also those tragedies will be removed. The eighth segment is about seeking redemption and pardon. Where it says... The segment, the word that it says... The forgiveness and satisfaction of God. God will be angry at last. The patience of God, the forbearance of God is humongous beyond imagination. When he is angry as someone, he will be very satisfied very quickly. As the prayers of Ali Ibn Abi Talib says... God will be satisfied easily when the servant, when a human ask repentance. In fact, God would be very elated to see us seeking repentance and forgiveness. In the Hadith by Imam Al Baqar, Imam says... God will be more elated than the person, the rider, who has lost his ride during the night in the middle of night. That had his even, his subsistence food and money on that ride. And God lost that ride, meaning the camel or the cattle that he was riding on. When he finds that cattle and that camel, how elated he would be? Because he has been saved. God will be more elated to see that his servant is returning back to him. That's why Ali Ibn Abi Talib says... And the segment ninth, it's to clear away fear and disease and to elevate the rank. Where it says... There are many people who think what they have done is due to their power and their achievements. They attribute their achievement to their energy and to their brain and their own power and strength. While they are very, not, they lose mind and they lose thought of the fact it is him who has given them the power, the wisdom, the guidance to succeed. When I empower myself, when I become rich or powerful or wealthy, I always attribute my success to myself. The Almighty Allah says, wait a minute, these are all due to blessings that I have given you. He teaches as a prophet, says... If you think that you became victorious in the battle due to your resourcefulness and being smart, think again. It is because of the Almighty who has helped you to fight the Mushriki and be victorious. Always, we should ask God to elevate our ranks. We never should be resorting to our own. Yes, we will struggle, we will strive, but we should not be overconfident of ourselves. How appropriate are these illustrations and effective admonitions provided they are received by pure hearts? Open ears, firm views and sharp wits. Fear Allah like him who listened with advice and both before it. When he committed sin, he admitted it. When he felt feared, he acted virtuously. When he apprehended, he hastened towards good acts. When he believed, he performed virtuous acts. When he was asked to take lessons from the happenings of this world, he did take lessons. When he was asked to exist, he abstained from evil. When he responded to the call of Allah, he leaned towards him. When he turned back to evil, he repented. When he followed, he almost imitated and when he was shown the right path, he saw it. Such a man was busy in search of truth and got rid of the worldly evils by running away. He collected provisions of good acts for himself, purified his inner self, built for the next world and took with himself provisions for the day of his departure. Keeping in view his journey, his requirement and the position of his need, he sent ahead of him for the abode of his stay in the next world.