 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم، الحمد لله رب العالمين، الصلاة والسلام على السيد المرسلين، سيدنا محمد وعلى آله بصاحب يسلم رب الشحلي صدري وسلي أمري وعلى الوقتة من لسان يفقوا وقولي آمين اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد الفات إحلما أغلك والخاطم اللي وسبق ناصر الحق بالحق والهالي لسراء تكون واستقيموا على آله حق غدري ومقتاره العظيم اللهم افتح علينا فضوها العارفين ووقوا فقناتوا في غصانهين وانفعنا اللهم بالقرآن والذكر الحكيم اللهم علمنا ما ينفعونا وانفعنا بمعلمتنا وزلنا عينما وعامنا المتقبلا بواجه كلكريم يا الرحمن الرحيمين الحمدلله رمضان سيقوم بشكل جيدا حمدلله again this year and a little bit over a week now إن شاء الله today we'll be talking about the purpose of fasting so not so much about the rulings of fasting إن شاء الله most people already know that or are able to find a means to review that or to learn that if they already know it but as everything in our dean our dean isn't just it's not just rulings it's not just law everything in the religion has a purpose and so when we learn the rulings of fasting when we learn the rulings of prayer when we learn the rulings of going on Hajj a lot of times these things can feel arbitrary it's for many people following religion feels like there's minefields everywhere and you just have to navigate around the minefields and people will tell you where to go so long as you avoid certain things you're all good you're all good with God and then eventually after life you'll get your reward that's not really what what religion is that's someone who's doing the bare minimum it's not with the vision of Islam it's not with the vision of what Allah intends for us and so you see in the Quran many instances where yes there are ayat there are hadith about the rulings pertaining to our ibadat and pertaining to our actions and to our congress and so on and so forth but they're also verses really to the purposes of them as well and so for example Allah says about it so yes in the prayer there's a standing and sitting and bowing and there's a certain amount of of ayat that have to be recited after the fatah there's a certain length of time that they should stay in the sitting position etc those are all rulings but all those rulings all that form it's built towards this basic function that function is let that prayer be for my remembrance in Hajj Allah reveals he says are from the symbols of Allah and so ever visits the house of Allah in Hajj or on Umrah then he must do Tawaf which is literally like a circling back and forth whether it's the back and forth of Asaf and Marwa or the literal circling of the Kaaba then he must do Tawaf regarding those two and so the purpose here is this is a symbolic ritual we're following the footsteps of our father Ibrahim and going through this act of pure ibadah right Allah says I didn't create a general mankind except to worship me and so part of the purpose of of Hajj and Umrah is for the intellect to do sajdah it's part of the purpose that there's a lot of rituals that we don't understand and it's the fact that we do ibadah anyways we come to Allah in a state of the bake at your service putting the head down and not asking questions that's part of the purpose of Hajj the purpose of Zakat is twofold one comes in hadith and one comes in an aya one is to remove the quality of from the heart and the other one is for a redistribution of wealth and a recognition that those who are poor aren't just poor because they haven't worked hard enough a lot of times this is what Allah is apportioned for four different people some people are fortunate and so they become more wealthy some are less fortunate and so they're poor and so the Prophet is Allah and he says in a hadith tell them that Allah has obligated on them صدقة obligated upon them a charity to be taken from the rich amongst them and to be returned meaning it wasn't actually theirs to begin with to be returned to the poor amongst them and so that brings us to some that brings us to fasting what then is the purpose of fasting all these rulings that we learn about fasting what's the same what's the function that it serves and so Allah says يا يهالدين أعملوا كتب عليكم السيام كما كتب علي الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقون yeah so fasting was you who believe fasting was prescribed on you just as prescribed before you so that you may gain piety which is a poor translation of تقوى what تقوى means is to create a shield a وقاية before you and around you on all sides and this comes from the literal meaning of سوم سوم in Arabic comes from it's literal meaning it's at a kef to hold something back to restrain something and so fasting is about restraint it's fasting is about holding back which is why we hold ourselves back from food and drink and a number of other prohibited things the Prophet SAW explained لكل عبادة باب باب وعبادة سوم every act of worship every worship has a door through which you enter and the door of all عبادة is some the door through which you enter to worship Allah of Allah in the first place is fasting because to begin to worship Allah you first need to separate yourself from everything else in other words there's a principle there's a legal principle in Islamic law that to repel harm to repel evil takes priority over acquiring goods to repel evil takes priority over acquiring goods in other words before you can turn to Allah you have to remove the world from yourself you have to remove your dependence on the world from yourself you have to empty the cup of your soul as it were before it can be filled so before you can begin truly in in عبادة you need to do a تكبرت الأخرام to throw the world behind you and so this is that throwing of the world behind you so what fasting is is throwing the world behind you it's detaching your dependence on the world it's letting your soul rise out of the body because the more that the more that you eat after you eat you feel tired especially if you overeat you'll end up in a food coma you want to sleep why because what the soul is down digesting the food what you learn science of anatomy and biology and how all the systems work is describing how the soul is digesting the food but what scientists can't infer is the existence of the soul in the first place because it's not material it's not something that can be sensed through instruments and so it's the soul digesting the food and so it's already occupies engaged with the body and so it's not free to look towards the angelic realm and the human being is a mixture of soul and body the body is from this realm the body is from the earth and the soul is from the angelic realm so long as the soul is looking down at the body so long as the soul is engaged with the body it can't be looking up and if I'm looking up I'm not looking down if the soul's gaze is upwards it can't be looking downwards if the soul's gaze is downwards it can't be looking upwards if you're eating then then you're and you're digesting then the soul is occupied in that and so when we say that the soul is to restrain yourself is restraining your dependence on the body in order to free the soul in order to free the soul that's what تتقون means in the ayah in other words when the body is weakened the soul is strengthened as a خلاصة of what we're saying when the body is weakened the soul is strengthened I want to qualify that though when it comes to when it comes to religion you often have two types of people one type are the reluctance followers of religion who generally want the rulings of religion to be very permissive and just want to do what they want to do they just want to follow their own whims and desires but oftentimes when a person takes on the label of being religious they move from one extreme to the other extreme so they go from extremely permissive to extremely strict on themselves and so this idea of strictness this idea of making things hard on itself becomes something that they desire which itself is not religion religion is in the middle of both of these and so when they hear something like this that when the body is weakened then the soul is strengthened when it comes to extreme okay fine let me fast all the time let me never eat anything let me completely exhaust myself and then my soul will be strengthened and you see this historically in medieval Christianity especially monasticism embodied this extreme not ideal but this extreme view that we should be complete ascetics but we should completely divorce ourselves from the body that the flesh and material in the world is completely hateful it's not something that Allah has blessed in a way and so they try to deny themselves the body they never got married they never ate they lived completely separate from society that leads to another extreme this extreme is also dangerous but the danger of that is just like when you overeat your soul becomes engaged with the body and can't think you can't work you can't read Quran actually reflect on the meanings of the Quran on the other hand if the body is too weak then can you think about anything can you worship? no because the soul is now occupied with the absence because the soul can't be completely separated from the body so now it feels hunger and it's starving and the soul is entirely focused on the body needs something but at the same time this person who's obsessed with this rigidity and strictness in religion he will think well it's fine this is what I need to do to divest myself of the body and so neither actually serves its purpose each one results in a different each one each one feels its purpose because in either case the soul is going to be occupied with the body itself it won't be free to look upwards to gaze at a lot to understand what Allah is telling us in the Quran and so on and so forth this is basically you know a lot of this is part of ancient wisdom as well a Plato famously said while debating the people that he debated the difference between me and you is that you live to eat and I eat to live what do you mean eat to live because life isn't about about eating life isn't about just enjoying food and enjoying material desires there's a higher purpose to life and eating it should be done to the degree that's necessary to enjoy the other parts of life to fulfill the other purposes of life when someone overstuffs themselves with the material it numbs the soul when we're going to talk about what does it mean for the soul to look upwards versus to look downwards the and excessive engagement with the material world numbs the soul because the soul is a sixth sense just like we have eyes and ears and touch and smell and so on the soul is a sixth sense it's another way of perceiving the world if you hear something too loud you become deafened and you can't hear soft sounds if you see something too bright then you're unable to see soft light soft colors you become blind if you taste something too strong you can't taste if you taste a subtle taste anymore and so you know in the same way that for example if someone eats candy all the time or is used to extreme strong flavors are they going to enjoy apples or fruits or things with just a small amount of sugar because their senses are num they're desensitized some is about re-sensitizing the soul because the spiritual world is made of what are called the qawif these ethereal subtle realities like light like smoke they're not things that are easily grasped they're not solid and so the more that you become sensitized to these things the more you're able to understand it and the more that you're able to understand it then you can fulfill the purposes of of religion then you understand what Allah is trying to tell you then you understand what what it means for there to be angels around you then you can actually see them and you understand what their purpose is and how they benefit your life Allah says in the Quran Allah intends ease for you He doesn't intend difficulty for you and that's a summation some is about easing life for you making it better for you Allah intends ease for you this verse doesn't mean that whatever I find easy I'll do because that's only what God wants and if I find fast and difficult then let me just take a day off because I'm working today all day and it's too hard for me what the verse is saying is what Allah has intended for you in other words what he's decreed for you already know that that's already in your best interest know that that's already ease for you even if you can't see it even if you think ease is somewhere else even if you think that oh this is so difficult right now and this is so weighty right now what Allah is showing you is the full scope the full consequences of your action not just the immediate feeling that you're that you do from whatever action that you're doing this this ayah that I just quoted comes at the end of the ayah on Ramadan and that's why and that's how you know that it's connected because Allah says you read you read you read you read you read you read you read you read so here Allah encompasses the entire purpose of the fast as well as certain he tells you certain things certain secrets certain wisdoms he says the month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was revealed as a guidance for people وبينات ميلا الهدو and clear evidence in that guidance والفرقان and a criterion what a criterion is is that in life oftentimes traveling navigating through life thinking about different possibilities of what might happen to you and making large decisions in life can seem like navigating through darkness and Allah describes this in the beginning of Surah Al-Baqara that there are people who go through life in complete darkness they don't know they take one step and they think that they see a light a flash of lightning and it illuminates the path that they continue on and they continue one step and then the flash of lightning goes away there's no continuous light for them this is the example this is the pattern of the hypocrites but the believer Allah describes as او من كان او من كان مسلم او من كان او من كان ميطن في أحيانه وجعلنا له نور يمشي به في النس so Allah describes there are people that were you not dead and God gave you life in other words were you not dead of spirit death is when the soul leaves you and you become just body just a material body were you not dead and God gave you life again you returned your Ruh to you if you're blind if you can't taste anything it says if you have no soul at all the soul has become completely succumb to the body the soul has become completely dependent and subservient to the body and so the soul is effectively dead some gives it life again fasting gives it life again fasting gives you the ability to come out of your body again او من كان ميطن في أحيانه were you not dead and then we gave you life or was he not dead and then Allah gave you life and he gave for you a light and this is one of the meanings of رقان a light by which you walk amongst people give you a light by which you walk amongst people this is the light of wisdom and knowledge of understanding that in the darkness of life when you don't know what you're doing when things seem confusing or when things are not clear you have a guidance not just a guidance of let me look in the Quran and see if there's any guidance but there's intuitive knowledge that the believer has someone who's practicing his faith to to the fullest he has intuitive knowledge of what does God desire from me in every moment and he recognizes that whatever God desires from me is already in my best interests and so he gives you this light and suddenly it's all clear suddenly it all makes sense suddenly questions of like the problem of evil why did God allow suffering in the world isn't a question anymore it's clear to you now why are the people suffering so severely after so many decades of resistance there's a plan behind this suddenly all the vicissitudes of life that make us feel like you're drowning in the ocean they make sense to you you understand what Allah desires what Allah is intending from his plan this is the light that this is the light, this is the Furqan that Ramadan brings to the believer and then Allah describes so whoever sees the moon then let him fast for the month and whoever is sickly or on a journey then let him complete that portion from other days Allah intends ease for you and does not intend difficulty for you and then he continues and he intends for you to complete the number complete the number of days because there's a wisdom in fasting 29 or 30 days specifically which sort of gets into the Arabic numbers and letters and things like that which is a bit complicated to explain right now but there's a wisdom in fasting 29 or 30 specifically and so even if you miss some days Allah obligates on you 29 or 30 because that's the completion of Ramadan بلي تكبر الله على ما هداكم and for you to glorify Allah for what he guided you to what did he say at the beginning of the ayah that the Quran was a guidance for mankind in other words this is also the month of the Quran and in reading the Quran you will gain what you need for lights in this life and when you gain it then you glorify Allah for that wisdom, for that understanding that you gained that you didn't have before for clearing all that confusion from you بلي تكبر الله على ما هداكم و العلكم تشكرا and that you might be grateful for what Allah gave to you part of part of what we gain gratitude from in Ramadan is realizing that is realizing our dependence on Allah and that our dependence on Allah our soul dependence on Allah freezes from our dependence on other things something you often hear repeated over and over again is that well especially when talking to non-Muslims they'll ask why do you fast and we say well we fast in order to feel solidarity with the poor, with the miskiin which is true but it doesn't really get at the heart of what's going on somebody who's poor will fast everyday like there's a there's a man a sheikh sheikh fal and in Medina who he met from Mauritania he lives essentially in a room maybe the size of this maybe twice the size of this platform that's it and in the poorest conditions you can imagine he hasn't he hasn't received new things until recently for decades and it looks like a place it looks like the home of the homeless except that he literally just has a building a room in which he lives but otherwise you would consider him homeless he fasts everyday fast because he doesn't have food otherwise although all the food that he gets is from food that people bring him in the mush and then often as he distributes the extra food he doesn't keep it for himself that's where a person he's a miskiin so when we say we feel solidarity with him during fasting yes you feel solidarity with him but his state is all of our states in reality his outward state is always being in need of Allah he doesn't know where his next meal is going to come from he doesn't know if he's going to have food tonight he doesn't know what he's going to eat all he does is go to the mush and worship and his risk comes to him as law intense and that's the reality for all of us and my difference is it appears to us that things happen because we gain a paycheck and that paycheck pays for our food and then somebody cooks our food and we go to the grocery store and we go to a restaurant and all these means are what's giving us sustenance and that if the food isn't cooked one night then you'll get angry at that person who is supposed to cook it or if you don't get your paycheck and you start worrying about how am I going to feed myself how am I going to live how is my family going to live all of that worry about risk all of that worry about where's my sustenance where's my food where's my housing going to come from because we don't realize we're in the first place we are in the same state as ashekfar just his outward matches his inward and our outward deceives us from our inward reality the great sage ابنة تعالى سكندري says your dependence is intrinsic is essential to you is what makes you human your dependence on Allah and so we are grateful to him we're grateful to Allah that he made his dependent on him because we don't need the food we don't need the drink in reality when you outside of Ramadan if you miss a meal really start worrying oh no where's where's my food going to I'm hungry I have to eat I have to go somewhere I have to figure out what I'm going to do same thing in Ramadan during lunchtime there's no worry there's no worry we don't need the food in the first place it's just an illusion and so this month is revealing that reality that you're free of need of these things in the world and that your your only dependence is on Allah you realize you're not dependent on people people aren't as merciful as Allah people can be nice people can have good character some of them at least but you realize oftentimes in difficult times or if they're in difficult times then very few people really retain those good qualities very few people remain generous very few people remain honest very few people remain trustworthy when their luck is down when the world seems against them those are not the type of people you want to depend on you want to depend on the person on he Allah who is without need on the person who's wealth is plentiful who has everything so he can give freely without any fear of poverty and so this is one of his attributes right in a Hadith he says but it's a Hadith so it's said on the divine tongue he says fasting is mine Allah says fasting is mine and I reward it everything else that we do is not ascribed to Allah what does it mean fasting is mine because all things go back to Allah and they don't go back to Allah in the sense of benefiting benefiting him or harming him they go back to Allah in the sense that they're accepted or not accepted about Allah so what does it mean fasting is mine Allah is telling this fasting is an attribute of mine I fast just as you fast except the fasting of Allah is eternal the fasting of Allah is everlasting because he doesn't need food or drink but the fasting is it's the lack of dependence on the world and Allah does not depend on the world he fasts and so he graces us with this ability to acquire his attribute to become like him in a way not anthropomorphically but in a figurative way to become like him just as he is without need of food or drink he allows us to become like him by us depending on him and not depending on the food or drink in the first place you gain in other words you gain self-sufficiency which is what we were talking about what fasting really is fasting is self-sufficiency you gain self-sufficiency by him sufficing you and so you are self-sufficient of the food you're self-sufficient of the material world and what they will do to you and whether they are acting in your interest or not acting in your interest and so on and so forth any questions or anything I think it's probably close to the break time 4.30 yeah 4 o'clock I never mind so that's about the purpose of fasting what's what's the significance of it how does it tie to how it affects the soul and the body and why has Allah decreed it and prescribed it for us in the first place but to implement this means like we said at the beginning that we don't treat fasting as just an exercise in fulfilling our obligations and then we're done with it at a moderate time to achieve a lot of these things that we're talking about it means that you begin fasting not just a minimum of fasting but a little bit more the way that the Salah and the Salahin would fast and their fasting include more than just the bare minimum and so there's some practices that are recommended so I wanted to read a little bit from one of my teachers books on what those practices were and how to achieve this self-sufficiency and this lack of dependence and this restraining of the self and of the ego so that the soul might be free he says here بسوات والسلام قل مسنف و أما السوم الخصوص وهو سوم الصالحين فهو يكفل جواره عن الأثان و تمامه بستة أمور so there's six practices amongst the fasting of the righteous meaning the righteous isn't just for people who outwardly display the signs and marks of piety the righteous are those who live Islam to the fullest who gain the fruits of Islam along with just this practice and so the first one الأول غض البصري و كفه عن الأتساعي في النظري إلى كل ما يضمه و يقره و إلى كل ما يشهر القلب و يهني عن ذكر الله عز وجل the first is to lower the gaze and to restrain it from peering out onto towards everything that is blame worthy and everything that is disliked so not only restraining your gaze from the haram but also from the things that are disliked and displeasing to Allah عز وجل عز وجل the what comes into the eye the eye and the ears all of these limbs of the body are entry routes into the heart or entry routes into the soul and so the soul sees through all of these faculties on the human body and so whatever comes into it if it is displeasing to Allah it is because it harms the soul and so whatever is disliked whenever you see it you become affected by it whenever there is a principle in philosophy that whenever something is known the intellect takes on a shape in other words when you are thinking about a book let's say then there is the appearance there is a likeness of a book in the mind right when you're seeing just like when you're seeing something with your eyesight in the back of the eyeball there's an image that's reflected when you're seeing similarly in the soul whenever something is known its image is cast onto the back of the soul and so it takes on that shape it takes on that image and is affected by it whenever the soul sees something it becomes aware of it it becomes familiar with it and so the more that you see things to yourself the more it becomes normalized to you for example if you scroll through youtube all day and your youtube or other things and the streamer and the video the video feed that you have is full of images of different things that are dislike or calling you to follow your desires or follow your lusts and that idea becomes normalized for you it's not as despicable it's not something that you immediately recoil from that's disgusting that's not something I want to do because the soul has become normalized it's seen it over and over until it just becomes the soul this is why the prophet he said a single glance is a poisoned arrow from the bow of of shaitan from the bow of iblis so whoever leaves that gaze of something he wants to look at but he knows as displeasing to Allah whoever leaves it out of fear of Allah Allah rewards him Allah gives him faith and he finds the sweetness of that faith in his heart he finds the benefit of that faith it's not just blind faith it's faith where you see why you see the beauty of that faith you taste the fruits of that faith you gain that light that we were speaking of so that's the first practice to restrain your gaze from things that are displeasing to Allah the second one he says so the second is holding the tongue back from empty speech from lying from backbiting from spreading tales and gossiping from speaking about immoral and and indecent things from speaking harshly from argumentation and so holding the tongue back from these things and forcing upon it silence forcing it to keep quiet because when you're talking you're engaged with the thoughts in your mind the soul is occupied but trying to think about what should I talk about how do I how do I make myself look how do I make myself sound funny to the other person how do I impress the person that I'm talking to how do I tell the story well your mind is occupied with that in other words your heart and your soul are occupied with that and when you're in that state when you're always talking about things that aren't of any benefit or are harmful to people like and so on and so forth you're not in a state of a dhikr you're not in a state of remembrance and so the silence it serves the purpose of it serves the purpose of when the tongue is silent then the heart can reflect on Allah can remember Allah can invoke Allah and can recite the Quran with true understanding and true presence of heart and it says this is the fasting of the tongue fasting of the tongue from these sins of the tongue and again there's a Hadith narrated about this إنما السوم الجنة في ذا كان أحدكم صائما فلا يرفث ولا يجهل وإن من قاطل هو أشاتمه فليكل إنسان إنسان it's recommended that whenever somebody's insulted or a person tries to fight with him while you're fasting when you say I'm fasting I'm not going to respond to you because fasting is the shield السوم الجنة and so you're supposed to protect yourself from your own ego like we said the other person who's fighting you the other person who's insulting you he in reality has no effect he's just an illusion Allah has placed him there to test you you don't need to respond to that person what you need to do is protect your ego from speaking because you're in a state of remembering Allah and you want to stay in that state of remembering Allah and not coming to the place of defending yourself it's also narrated from the prophet's law that when a person is insulted and remains silent that the angels instead defend him so he receives protection it's not just you know he poses himself too you know I'm not recommending that people be doormats and not say anything when when they're attacked but the point being that there there's a higher purpose to it and it shouldn't be ego-serving so that's the second one the first one is restraining the tongue the eyes the second one the third one the third one is restraining or the fasting of the ears everything that's disliked everything that we said with regards to eyesight also applies here just like the eyes should not extend towards that which displeases into Allah the ears should not lend themselves to listening to anything that is displeasing to Allah and with the tongue just like there are things that are that are sins of the tongue that a person is forbidden from saying backbiting like gossip and so forth it's also haram to listen to these things everything that's haram to say is haram to listen to so the two are equivalents and they're considered equivalent in the Quran in the ayah that is stated additionally we know with with gossiping with backbiting if somebody is saying something about their fellow believer that the person would not like that's backbiting being silent in the face of backbiting is haram just as badly as the backbiting itself Allah says in the Quran he says he says in the context of somebody who who's backbiting then don't sit with them until they delve into some other topic of conversation if you were to sit with them then you would be just like them right the backbiting we all know is like eating the flesh of your brother not just the person who's saying it but the person who's listening to it as well you have to leave that place of dining as it were you need to leave the room or you need to say something to to stop the so those are three sounds like the other one's going off so inshallah we'll pray and then come back and then there's just so to continue so to continue we were talking about the defasting of the righteous and that the defasting of the righteous revolves around guarding the inroads to the heart to guarding the inroads to the soul because the point of fasting isn't just getting hungry or getting thirsty the point of fasting is to free the soul and to free the soul it needs to be divested from and separated from the material world and from engagement with the material world so that it can learn to engage with these spiritual life these ethereal matters that that its soul is intended for and the inroads to the heart are the different limbs and the senses and faculties of the human body and so we talked first about eyesight and guarding eyesight the second one was guarding the tongue the third one was guarding the ears the fourth one here he says he continues he says the fourth is to restrain all of the other limbs and so this includes your hands your feet your tongue, your eyes, your ears your stomach and your genitals restrain all of those from things that are displeasing to Allah whether or not they're haram or whether they're just simply mildly disliked what this means though for the stomach is obviously you're not eating but this kef the song continues at the time of iftar at the time of iftar you're allowed حلال فتز but you still have a psalm from haram as well as a psalm from foods that are doubtful and so in these days it'd be a meat that's not properly slaughtered it would include food if somebody has a profession or a job that is not valid and allowed by by Islamic law than the food that you're eating if it's from that risk then that would also be considered a food that is doubtful those doubtful things a person should also restrain himself from at the time of iftar because it's pointless to fast from the haram and then to engage in the haram later on right if somebody who who's mildly sick so he takes some medicine during the day and then at night he says okay I've had my medicine but let me enjoy this poison because it tastes so good you're just going to get yourself sicker and a lot of people end up doing this at the time of iftar that's more than they would have eaten otherwise throughout the day so what's the point if the idea is that the soul should be disentangled should not be so preoccupied with bodily needs then there's no point spending half the day not eating and then spending the entire night digesting the food from iftar and you have no time to no time to pray because those are times that the soul is now freed because it hasn't been eating all day that's the time when you can take advantage of what you gain during the day at night so if you have iftar just eat enough to satisfy your hunger and eat enough at the beginning of the fast that you aren't entirely depleted throughout the entire day anything more than that you've missed the entire point of the previous days fast the night is when you take advantage of what happened during the day the Prophet SAW said how many people fast and yet they gain nothing from the fast except hunger and thirst because they missed the point of the fast they eat too much after the fast and so scholars say this is somebody who eats the haram somebody who who breaks the fast on the flash of his brother by غيبة by backbiting or somebody who eats excessively at the time of iftar and he says here which is essentially what what I was just saying he says how can you gain from the fast control control control control control control control control control control controlling and mastering this enemy of God enemy of God being his own ego and to break his desires to break the control that his desires have over him if the person who is fasting makes up when he breaks his fast what he lost in the middle of the day and then he says and a person might even exceed what he would have eaten otherwise he might exceed it in terms of the variety of foods that he would eat and so he talks about his time that has become the habit of people to store up all sorts of food and types of food specifically for Ramadan they only eat pakora during Ramadan yes specific foods for Ramadan just to enjoy that time and so he will eat in one month what he won't eat in many money months so people gain weight during Ramadan rather than losing weight during Ramadan even though it's known that the purpose of fasting is to empty the self and to break the desires so that the soul is strengthened in his ability to have piety so he says he says he says he says he says he has secrets meaning why did Allah legislate this in the first place it's secret it's to weaken the faculties of the body the faculties of the body that are the inroads of shaitan into the heart it's said that in Ramadan shaitan is imprisoned كنت وصولته لن يكفي بلانا لأنه لا يستمع إلى كيفية لأنه يوجد اغراضاته ، فهي يوجد اغراضاته يوجد اغراضه بلانا يوجد اغراضه لأن الشيطان يتهتم بك بماكوك ، بماكوك ، بماكوك ، بماكوك لكن إذا كانوا فرقون جميعهم من هذه الأحياء التي نتحدث عنها then the devil has no inroad to you he has no ability to affect you and someone who practices this during Ramadan then is able to practice outside of Ramadan he's gained a shield he's gained a takwa takwa is a shield like we mentioned in the beginning he's gained a shield from the shaitan outside of Ramadan by practicing it in Ramadan as well so these inroads that that shaitan has they're all weakened inroads of shaitan to drive the human being to evil وَلَنَ يَحْسُلَ دَارِكَ إِلَّا بِتَّقْلِيلَ this only happens by lessening the amount of food that you eat overall yeah and then Imam Shahrani he mentions that what does it mean to diminish your food it means that you should feel a hunger in excess of what you normally feel meaning there's a normal type of hunger that we all feel throughout the day just between meals if that's the only hunger that you're feeling then your soul isn't being separated from the body anymore than it normally would hunger is a sign that the ego is being forced to separate itself and so you should feel a little bit more hungry than you normally do it's a good sign that your ego is being restrained there were some of the Salihina of the past I'm not recommending this for people but just to understand where the heights that a Muslim can go to in fasting realizing what those heights what those ideals are can be motivating you know Shahrani says he heard from his teacher سيدي عليا علينا الخواص رحمه الله say that the person during during صهور he would recommend to his students that he not exceed three bites or three dates for for صهور and similarly when breaking the fast just three dates and that's how they would spend the entirety of the Ramadan now so those are five practices the sixth one is to recognize that despite everything that that we have done fasting is something that belongs to Allah as we said اصوم لي وانا ادسيبي but we don't know if it's accepted or not so even during during افطار the heart should should remain as he says here معلق مضطريبا بين الخوفي والرجاء it should be suspended between hope and fear in one sense hopeful of Allah's mercy that he will accept this fast despite the shortcomings in the fast but fearful of what if I just waste in my day what if I haven't done enough because that fear would drive him to improve himself and he should be in the state at the end of every ibadah that he finishes like often been been repeated when you finish praying you say استغفر الله because of the same idea استغفر الله because you're in a state of fear maybe maybe I prayed but the way I prayed wasn't pleasing to Allah and so he didn't he didn't he didn't accept it so this is the استغفر الله استغفر الله comes from that fear of recognizing that perhaps what I've done has not been accepted by my lord and then he talks about here the meaning of سوم being one of the attributes of Allah so we'll just read it قال الإمام الشعراني رضي الله عنه الصوم وصف من اصاف الربوبية لا يتصف به إلا الكامل على الكمال إلا الله الذي يطعمه ولا يطعم كما قال في الحديث القدسي اتصوم لي وانأجزي به فأضافه إلى نفسه إلا يتصف به به أحد إلا الله لأنه الغني وعن الأكضي أبد العابدين ودخر الداهلين المنزه وعن جميع الأغراض الشهوات أزنه وعبده he says سوم is one of the traits is one of the names of Allah it's one of the traits of his lordship lordship meaning that الله being a lord is what makes us an abd so it's one of his traits that makes him deserving of our worship the fact that he has signed the fact that he a aswaja can be called fasting and none are none possess the trait of fasting in his perfection in his fullness except for Allah because he gives food he feeds people and he's not fed as comes in the hadith qudsi sohm is mine fasting is mine and I reward it and so he aswaja ascribe this trait to himself in other words none are described by it it doesn't apply to anyone in reality and in fullness except to Allah aswaja because he is free of needing to eat for all of time for and everlastingly a transcendent of all motives transcendent of all desires transcendent of all appetites for all of time ففرغ الله الصوم على عباده كسرا للشهوات وقطعني أسباب الإسترقاكي واتعبدي للأشياء and so Allah obligates fasting upon his slaves to break their desires so that we become like him in a way like we said not anthropomorphically but just like Allah does not have desires he's transcendent he rises above desire he does this in his essence we have to work towards this and so he gives us fasting to break our desires and to cut off these causes of being enslaved and captive to things to truly realize the meaning of being an abd for Allah alone and not an abd to things الصوم يقطع أسباب التعبدي لغير الله تعالى ويورث الخرية من الرقي للشهوات والمجتهيات لأن المراد من الإنسان أن يكون مالكا للأشياء وخليفة فيها لا أن تكون مالكة له لأنه خليفة الله في ملكة because the what is intended and desired from the human being what Allah intends for us is that we be masters of things and that we not be mastered and controlled by things we are meant to be خليفة on this earth we are meant to be the vice-chair and representatives of Allah on this earth what that means is we should have mastery over things and that we should not be controlled by things this is one of the things that Allah has honored us with لقد قرمنا بني آدم we have ennobled the children of Adam with this status of خليفة with the status of being a vice-chair and somebody who is responsible for the earth and representative of Allah on it فهذا كان هذا سر الصوم عند أرباب الألباب واصحاب القلوب فأي يجدوا لتأخير أكلة وجمي أكلتين عند العشاء معا إنهماك في الشهوات الأخر طول النهار so if this is the secret of fasting according to the masters of the heart and the possessors of of of insight then what point is there to delay eating one meal or two meals until the night time if one is fully engrossed in their in their other desires for the entirety of the day what have they done they've missed the entire point all they've come to Allah with Allah come to Allah with is this form this empty box without the purpose the purpose is to come is to come to Allah is to serve Him in the manner that He asks us us to serve Him in a manner that's in our best interests not just to arbitrarily follow rulings because as we hope not to be punished and one day gain something in the afterlife من لم يدى قول الزور والعمل به فليس لله يحاجة ويندى عالطعامه وشرابه that Prophet ﷺ said whoever does not leave a false speech and acting according to it that Allah has no need for Him to leave His food and to leave His fast Allah never has need for us to leave our food and to leave our fast but He there's no point in Him commanding us to leave our food and leave our fast if the tongue isn't grossed in these desires in speaking in speaking falsehoods in spreading lies and rumors about people and gossiping and so on and so forth قول إمام البيضاوي سر دي فيمس مفسر the famous scholar of تفسير إمام البيضاوي says ليس المقصود من شرعية السوم نفس الجوع والأطش he says it's not the point of the legislation of fasting to or hunger and thirst is not or not essentially the point and purpose of the legislation of fasting بلما يتبعه من كسر الشهوات وتطويع النفس الأمارة للنفس المتبئنة rather what follows from the hunger and the thirst the hunger and thirst are a means to breaking the desires and by making this rebellious soul and this نفس الأمارة compliant to النفس المتبئنة to the Ruh this peaceful soul I wish Allah عز وجل ساد أيائيتها النفس المتبئنة ارجعي إلى ربك راضية المرضية oh pleasing soul oh tranquil soul return to your lord well pleased and well pleasing you will be happy and Allah will be pleased with you فإذا لم يحسد ذلك لا ينظر الله إليه نظر القبول if that does not occur then Allah will not look upon his fast with the eye of acceptance I think we'll end there إن شاء الله وسه الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى أهلي وصحبه وسلم may Allah grant us the understanding to live this religion with purpose may Allah give us the strength to fast with purpose to fast for his sake to fast with the خلق of his attribute of some may Allah accept from us our efforts may Allah remind us as the days pass and as our memories fade aid the purpose of what we are doing may we be people who separate ourselves from our desires and separate ourselves from the material world during the day and turn to Allah at night reading the Quran and remembering him during the prayer so that we might gain lights and that we might gain a furqan by which we travel this world in a manner that is both pleasing to us and pleasing to him بجاه سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم through the practice and through the rank and through the pattern following our beloved example and model of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم بسرس الرحل الفاتحة جساق وخير هل هل هل لدينا الأسئلة عن شيء أو فاسدين؟ نعم هل تفهم كثيرا؟ ولكن هل من المفيد بشكل بسرع بسرع لكا يفكلون ويمكنون لكي يترجم لما هو بسرع فاسدين؟ نعم هناك الكثيرات من تفهم العديث ومعرفة أن فاسدين فاسدين هو سرع مثل اللهم يمكنني أن يقول أن مرسي is mine لا يعني أنه لا يوجد مرسي في العالم ما يعني هو مرسي is an attribute of mine is something I possess something I give to people when Allah says fasting is mine He's saying this is something that belongs to me just like I am Ar-Rahman I am also somebody who is free of need of food and in being free of need of food I am deserving of the name fasting deserving of that trait of fasting and accordingly because it is mine I reward it the understanding being with a special reward that's innumerable and it's beyond understanding essentially of the mind and so I give it a special reward because my عبد because my slave has inculcated in himself an attribute that in its fullness belongs to me I hope that helps insha'Allah الحمد لله if there are no other questions then we'll end there وصل الله على سيدنا محمد وعاله عليه وسلم و الحمد لله رب العالم