 رحمة الله وبركاته اسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين الحمد لله الذي يجيبني حين أناديه ويستر علي كل عورة وانا أقصيه ويعظم النعمة علي فلا أجازيه نحمده ونسبحه ونقدسه على آلائه ونعمائه ونشهد الله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له إلها واحدا أحدا فردا صمدا قيوما نؤمن له بالربوبية ونقر له بالعبودية من يحد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضل الفلا تجد له وليا مرشدة ونشهد أن سيدنا محمدا عبده ورسوله أرسله بالهدى ودين الحق ليغيره على الدين كله اللهم صل وسلم وبارك وترحم على محمد وآل محمد كأفضل ما صليت وسلمت وباركت وترحمت على إبراهيم وآل إبراهيم في العالمين إنك حميد مجيد وصل اللهم وسلم على جميع الأنبياء والمرسلين والأوصياء والصدقين وعترة نبيك الطيبين الطاهرين المعصومين وأصحابه المنتجبين ومن تبعهم بإحسان وإيمان إلى يوم الدين عباد الله أوصيكم وأوصي نفسي بتقوى الله ولزوم أمره في هذا الشهر العظيم قال تعالى في كتابه الكريم عوض بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وكل إنسان ألزمناه طائره في عنقه ونخرج له يوم القيامة كتابا يلقاه من شورا إقرأ كتابك كفا بنفسك اليوم عليك حسيب صنق الله العليه العظيم الله ثلاثة أشياء بشكلنا ومن نفسنا أحد أفضل نفسنا ونفسنا الأشياء التي نردنا وأشياء التي نتبقى الأشياء التي نبقى الثالثة is the character the moral character our morals our moral traits moral qualities also determines our personality and thirdly our behavior and our conduct and how the way we carry ourselves these three the combination of these three elements presents you presents your personality and this is your identity this is who you are and each and every person of us needs a period of accountability a period of self examination and self reflection and thus الله سبحانه وتعالى provides many opportunities for us to examine ourselves to do محاسبة accountability to ask ourselves to hold ourselves accountable question ourselves about these three areas about our thoughts our characters and our behavior and we have to change each and every person today needs to change himself or herself this life is a continuous journey of mental physical spiritual and religious growth we should not be stuck in a perpetual cycle of childhood and infanthood we need to grow we need to learn and the month of Ramadan is the time the season the season for us to grow the season for us to change maybe throughout the year we don't have this opportunity because we are busy with our life we are super busy people are running people have been turned into robots running for their life to survive in this life we don't have that opportunity we don't slow down throughout the year we are always busy and also the other element that does not allow us to reflect and self-examine is we do not have enough courage to change ourselves sometimes we are aware of our weaknesses we know them بل الإنسان على نفسه بصيرة we are aware of what is going on we are aware of our faults our mistakes our weaknesses but we do not have enough determination we do not have enough power to break free from the bad habits and to change ourselves the month of Ramadan provides this opportunity to garner enough courage to change ourselves through the Quranic recitation لكل شيء ربيع وربيع القرآن شهر ورمضان إن هذه القلوب تصدق كما يصدق الحديد إلا يا رسول الله وما جلاؤها the Prophet ﷺ says these hearts, human hearts they become rusty just like the iron rod when it becomes rusty so they said how do we polish it فما جلاؤها قال صلى الله عليه و سلم قراءة القرآن focus on your Quranic recitation this is the month of the Quran من تلا فيه آية the Prophet ﷺ says has been reported to say that if you recite an ayah you get the reward of one one khatma as if you have read the whole Quran the reward of it بغيره من الشغول this is the time for us to change and the change begins with us from inside Allah provides us with this opportunity first we come to the ideas many of us we carry sometimes we carry certain ideologies or thoughts that are not correct that are not correct we have this life is a structure we have this life is a struggle for us continuous struggle with our thoughts we have to examine them we should not take our thoughts for granted things that we learn from our parents or the school or the environment or the neighborhood and we believe that these are the most correct most authentic I don't have to change them Allah has given us the brain so we debate we discuss Allah has taught Quran has created man has taught him the clear the clear is the intellectual speech intellectual discourse so we discover new things if we are happy with our own ideas and we think all are wrong and we are the only people who are right this is very dangerous we are under a great illusion we have to debate always debate always have intellectual debate about our ideology our thoughts we learn we learn Allah enables us يعلم إنسان came into this life with zero knowledge he can become the most knowledge so we have to try to change our thoughts our ideology and one of them is the dean the madhab am I really on the right track am I doing the right thing we have to debate and Alhamdulillah there are books there are scholars nowadays knowledge is not limited to few circles in this city or that city you can reach knowledge anytime any minute you can ask this is number one the second is we have to reflect on our characters صفات النفسية some psychologist anthropologist sociologist or even ethicist they believe that you are born with your own character you cannot change you cannot change yourself while the Quran says yes you can change yourself if you have some bad habits you can change them إن الله لا يغيروا ما بقومن حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم تغيير الله says transformation you can change yourself but it depends on you it depends on yourself on your determination you can change they say your character follows your determination not that your determination follows your character no the character follows your determination if you have determination if you decide to do something you can change your own character from being bad into being good or sometimes from being good into being bad so someone who is dishonest and he thinks that he has been dishonest for 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years still he or she can change himself from being dishonest to being an honest person from being someone who is a liar into someone who is being truthful into someone who does not know the meaning of organization or discipline into someone who is very disciplined and very organized from someone who has no beautifulness towards his parents or his family no responsibility towards his children his wife from being someone who is highly responsible a صفة to the character our characters follows our determination we can do that we can change ourselves but then we have to sacrifice it does not come free every change entails a price tag you have to sacrifice you have to sacrifice الله سبحانه وتعالى provided us with the month of Ramadan we are sacrificing now at this minute most of you are sacrificing when you don't eat when you don't drink when you refrain when you abstain from certain things during the day of Ramadan this is a type of sacrifice Allah wants you to carry on this is a type of sacrifice and take it to a higher level not just food or drink there are certain things that are more difficult than food or drink desires desires for certain things more difficult Allah wants you to continue this and He enables you He provides you the month of Ramadan is the month of self reflection my friends do not forget the du'a do not forget the Quran and the du'a these two elements these two elements in the month of Ramadan number one at least one just one section of the 30 sections every day or the night at least one if not more and the second the du'a remember there are du'a of the desert du'a of the opening du'a of the great war du'a of the small war many many du'as the du'as after the prayers يا علي و يا عظيم يا غفور يا رحيم and other du'as that we decide do not forget about them read them read the translation of the du'a they refine you they change you when you read the du'a with reflection this is a testimony you are making a declaration a statement a vow سبحانه وتعالى that I am going to change myself in these areas try not to let month of Ramadan go without reading a whole cycle of the holy Quran with reflection with reflection the most powerful element of awakening and refinement spiritual refinement is the holy Quran sometimes I meet non-muslims who tell me that I am inspired by your book I love your book the holy Quran he is a non-muslim and you come to the Muslims many of them either they don't read or even those who read and memorize they go against the teachings of the Quran look at the bombing which is taking place now in Yemen during the month of Ramadan by a country that prints these millions of copies of these Quran and this is one of them by the same company the same city the same person the same country the same government are bombing the distressed and helpless people of Yemen during the month of Ramadan this is how we treat the Quran this is how we treat the Quran therefore the Hadith says ربتا للقرآن والقرآن sometimes someone memorizes the Quran and research the Quran but the Quran curses him he says you are not honest you read me or memorize me but you go against me against what I am telling you exactly against the Quran says help each other, protect each other defend each other but some people they choose to bomb each other to kill each other even during the month of Ramadan the idea that we have to work on is our behavior behavior with others behavior with our families today Allah has endowed us with a big responsibility that responsibility is called your family your wife your children your husband how are you treating them how do you treat them you have to examine that if you want your siam your fasting, your Quranic recitation your prayers to be accepted you have to look into the way you treat your family at home do not separate Quran and Salat and dua from the way you behave at home don't separate it has to be reflected the Quran that we learn the dua that we recite the prayers that we perform the lecture that we listen to the iftar that we give has to have a positive effect on our behavior at home it is unacceptable that we use anger and frustration with our family members during the month of Ramadan because I am fasting leave me alone, I am fasting that's not an excuse we have to change and the change begins with oneself and the Hadith goes back to Imam Al-Baqar that he said the way we treat others مامن مؤمنين احتجراء two believers two individuals who are believers مؤمنين they have a fight between themselves fight احتجراء if they don't speak to each other more than three days إلا برئة منهما I am going to disavow from them, renounce them they are not مؤمنين anymore if the fight continues if they don't speak to each other more than three days you have a limit the cap is only three days maybe within these three days you are frustrated, you are angry but you have to cool down curse the shaitan he wants to saw the seeds of dissension and hate among your hearts curse the shaitan stay away from the shaitan a believer what does a believer mean number one character of a believer he or she must have a pure heart the purest heart if your heart is not a pure if your heart is the center of a grudge then you are not a believer don't waste your time, don't fast believe me, if you ask me don't fast don't waste your food and a drink you are wasting your time the heart we have to work on the heart the heart is the station of love and forgiveness yes, we get angry yes but not more than three days إلا برئت منهما ألمام الباكر says they are not part of us don't call your ass shee or muslim or a believer then they said to him فقيلة يبنى رسول الله هذا حال الظالم فما باقل المظلوم اظنوا لديهم انه يفرق وانه يفرق لذلك لماذا فقيلة لا تباقنا ثلاثه تلقي الإيمام فقيلة فقال عليه الصرات والسلام وما باقل المظلوم لا يصير إلى الظالم فيقول له أنا الظالم حتى يصطلح even if you feel you are a victim لأنه يجب أن يكون مخطئة مع أخرين. هل نحن أخبرين أو المخطئين؟ نحن always the victims. نحن لا نفعل شيئا بك. أبداً أخبروني أني لا أخبروني أيضاً. أبداً أبداً. أحب never seen in my life that a husband and wife come to me and one of them says I am the aggressor. She is the victim. Always he is the victim. She is the victim. إمام says even if you think you are the victim go to him after three days. Go to him and tell him I did wrong to you. Even if you think you didn't do wrong. Say I did the wrong. I want to come back to you. حتى يصطلح ركن ساين. They create peace. This is Islam. This is Islam. This is the school of Islam. But if we speak about the school of Daesh it's something else. It is based on blood and a grudge and hatred and killing. That is the school of Ahl al-Bait. No more. After three days you have to go to him or her and apologize even if you think you are the victim. That's the way. حتى يصطلح. Let me conclude with this hadith. روي عن الإمام الرضا عليه الصلاة والسلام. Our eighth Imam. أنه قال يخفر في كل ليلة في شهر رمضان. سبعون ألف. كل سنة الله. سبعون ألف سبينتي ثاثة. It's a figure of speech. A metaphor in the Arabic literature. Arabic language when we want to mention something. A big number we say سبعين. تستخفر لهم سبعين مرة فلا. So it's not literally means only 70,000. It could be 7 million. 70,000 الله forgives every night of Ramadan. فإن كانت ليلة القدر if the night of destiny comes غفر الله تعالى فيها بقدر ما غفر في رجبي وشعبانا ورمضان. الله will forgive in that particular night the same amount that he forgave in these three months. رجب شعبانا ورمضان إلا except someone would put him on hold. They would not forgive him. إلا رجل بينه وبين أخيه شحنا a person that he has hatred between him and his brother. They put them on hold. They say sorry. You are on the waiting list. Stay here. Let's see what happens. فيقول تعالى الله سبحانه وتعالى will say انظرو هؤلاء حتى يصطلحوا Put them on hold until they get back to each other. If they don't get back to each other leave them there on the waiting list. Let them wait. This is the month of Ramadan. Month of brotherhood, sisterhood, love, forgiveness. We all are asking Allah to forgive us. If you ask each and every person what is your prime need you would say forgiveness then you have to forgive each other. Forgive each other. Make it a real month of forgiveness among ourselves so we receive the ultimate forgiveness and mercy and compassion of Allah سبحانه وتعالى بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والعصر إن الإنسان لفي خسر إلا الذين آمنوا وعملوا الصالحات وتواصلوا بالحق وتواصلوا بالصبر وصلى الله وسلم على سيدنا محمد وأهل بيته الطيبين الطاهري.