 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillah ar-Rahim. Wa-salatu wa-salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa-ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim ajma'in. Allahumma fattahalina fatuha al-arifin wa fiqla tofiqa salihin ya arham ar-Rahimin. Rab-ul shah-i sadri wa-salli amri wa-hala al-uqda tam al-hassani yaqqaw qawli. Wa-sallallahu ala wa-salam al-baraka ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa-ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Al-hamdulillah, we have reached the week right before Ramadan. Insha'Allah, Ramadan will start perhaps next Friday, insha'Allah, so this is the time for us to start preparing for this blessed month. And al-hamdulillah that even though we have very different circumstances in this specific month and the time that we're in right now with the quarantine situation going on, we're still insha'Allah Allah will give us the tofiq to be able to fast the month of Ramadan. Insha'Allah to figure out what are the different ways that we can adapt our approach to what we would have done usually. We would have gone to Ta'aweeb, we would have gone to other types of gatherings, we would have gone to Iftars, etc. And we figure out a way to still get as much benefit, if not more benefit, this Ramadan, then we would have gotten in other situations if we were able to kind of move about more freely. So insha'Allah for today we're really going to be focusing on starting this conversation about Ramadan prep and what are the virtues of Ramadan. So we'll start with some of the virtues of the month of Ramadan and then dive into the different ways that we can prepare for the month and then we'll start to talk about the different levels of fasting that are outlined where one level is simply fasting from food and water but there are higher levels than this. So al-hamdulillah that we as an ummah Allah prescribed fasting for us. He says in the Qur'an, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who came before you in order that you may attain this state of taqwa, in order that you may attain this state of God consciousness, this state of being careful about what you do, careful about engaging in sin, careful of course in this case about what you eat, careful about making sure that you do not transgress the bounds that Allah has set and being very careful and realizing that Allah is always watching us and always with us. That is a summary of what the scholars define as the state of taqwa and this month is a very very important month for us from the beginning of the month to the end of the month for us to really figure out, okay, first and foremost, do I understand how significant of a month is this? So first we should just realize this is a month of immense forgiveness and immense mercy. So all of us over the last year, we've engaged, we've dabbled, we've done things and we've sinned, we've done things that we shouldn't have done, right? We've dabbled in sin, we've engaged in sin. But now this month is a time for us to take a step back, for us to ask Allah for forgiveness, for us to try and get closer to Allah through this act of fasting which is very very very beloved to him and for that inshaAllah to be a means of forgiveness for our sins, for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it's narrated that he said that whoever fasts the month of Ramadan with iman, with belief and with the hope of seeking reward from Allah, his or her sins will be forgiven. So that's the first premise is that this is the month of forgiveness and it's a month of mercy. What does that mean? It's a month that first and foremost we should seek forgiveness from Allah and then of course we should also have a forgiving nature and we should try to inculcate a forgiving nature in ourselves. So that's the first takeaway for today is really let's just realize this is a month of asking God for forgiveness and turning to him and forgiving our sins. Then secondly this is a month of change. That taqwa is this gradual progression from being in a state of heedlessness to being in a state of being aware of Allah. That's what taqwa is. It's gradually progressing from this state of okay I'm heedless, I'm not aware, I'm not obeying God, to now I'm going to slowly start to progress in my relationship with Allah and to be more present and to be more aware and to have more of this state of taqwa. So the goal then is to try and set out on changing from not observing God's laws, not appreciating God's laws, not appreciating God's favours that he's bestowed upon us to try and then do the opposite which is to obey him, to observe his limits, to try and get closer and closer to him in this month and he makes it easy for us. For the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he's mentioned as saying that when the first night of Ramadan comes the shayatin are shackled, the jinn and the devils they are shackled, the doors of hell are closed and then the doors of heaven are opened and not a single door of heaven is kept shut and a caller calls out, this is on the first night of Ramadan, that O seeker of goodness come forward, O seeker of evil stay back and God begins this process of saving more and more and more people from the hellfire and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam also narrated that fasting is a shield with which a servant is protected or he protects himself or herself from the hellfire. So think about it now, this is the third main piece that we should take away from today, the third key point that the doors of heaven are opened and the doors of hell are shut. Now there's too, there's many realities to this right, from a figure to a level, the doors of hell are literally those doors which drag us to our lower nature, they drag us to the parts of us that we don't like, they drag us to our lower self, they drag us to our vices. The doors of heaven are those that are upward, they pull us closer to Allah, they make us lighter, they make us more joyful, they make us more tranquil, they make us in a state of being more merciful with others. Those are the doors, right? That's what the, when these doors open, those are the traits that are being brought out inside the human being. So now what is it though? It's a chance for our best side to come out and it's a chance for us to walk away our bad side and hopefully put it away for good, right? Because Ramadan is this amazing opportunity that when the shayatin are gone, Allah allows us to really work on ourselves. Because right now it's difficult, it's still important but it's difficult because you have the shayatin on one side fighting, right? And then you have the nafs which is the lower self, the ego we spoke about this last week which inclines towards evil and it's also fighting and it's also working to pull us towards our lower desires. But Alhamdulillah that we now have an advantage in this battle in Ramadan where the shayatin, they're gone. They're put away, right? That individual shayatin that are assigned to each of us that try to stir trouble between us and our family and us in our community and us and our friends, they're gone. They're locked up. The ones that try to whisper in the different desires, you should watch this, listen to this, smoke this, eat that, all these different things, they're gone, right? And so now the part of our nafs which has been influenced by them, it's still there but it's an easier battle. It's now us versus the nafs and Allah makes it easy because when the doors of heaven are opened that means the mercy is coming down, more ease is coming down, more barakah is descending, more blessings are descending and so we should try to increase our himmah then in this month. The other main virtue is that in this month good deeds are multiplied. Alhamdulillah that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned that whoever performs any type of good in this month, right? An extra act, it is as though he or she performed an obligatory act and whoever performs an obligatory act, it is as though he or she performed 70 obligatory acts outside of Ramadan. So just by doing our farth prayers, we're getting the reward for a significant amount more. Now it doesn't, I know what we think, right? Oh that means that I can just pray in Ramadan and erase all the past prayers. No, no, no, no, no. We are held to account for our prayers. We have to take it seriously to get on a path to making up our prayers. But when we engage in extra acts of worship, when we try to help people out, when we try to engage in acts of service, in acts of kindness, all of these things, they're multiplied. And it's as though you're getting the reward that had God had made that mandatory on you and you're getting the reward of a mandatory act. So it's a big deal. So what should this drive us to do? Should drive us to come up with a plan to do more good in Ramadan? That every hour that we waste in frivolous nonsense in this month, it's an hour gone that we could have really been investing wisely. And the one who invests wisely in this month every single year. And as long as we do a good job throughout the rest of the year trying our best, that person will see immense benefit on the day of judgment. They will see immense gains on the day of judgment because they will have used their time wisely. And Allah says that there are times that he's honored, that he's sectioned out times of the year, which are more powerful than others in Ramadan. There's a night known as the night of power, which is supposed to be greater. The worshiping in the night is greater than worshiping in a thousand months. That in and of itself is ennobling the month of Ramadan. And it shows us how much virtues and deeds are multiplied in this blessed month. And then the other thing to remember with regards to virtues. The fifth thing is that the fasting person, the whole day is worship. Alhamdulillah. Right? The messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said the sleep of the fasting one is worship. His silence is is remembrance of Allah, that his or her good deeds are multiplied. Their sins are forgiven. Prayers are answered. This is just while we're fasting. Literally, I'm just saying here and I'm thirsty and I can't drink anything. Right? And I'm getting reward and I'm getting my sins removed. And inshaAllah my situation is one where the prayers hopefully are answered. It's an amazing deed to be able to do. So we take advantage of that time, right? Even if I'm taking a rest or taking a nap. Now this means we still of course, we pray our prayers. We don't try to take shortcuts, right? Many times we take shortcuts in this month where we'll like, oh, I'm going to eat sahur at night, let's say at like 12 o'clock and I'm going to not wake up for fudger and I'll pray fudger when I wake up and I'll make it up. That's not that's not the point of this month. It's to work hard. It is to have discipline. It is to wake up in the morning. Sahur, yes, is a good thing to do. But if you don't do it, you still have to fast of course, right? But fudger is obligatory any time of the year. So in Ramadan, it's especially important that we prioritize this. We should not try to take shortcuts. It's more important to sleep early and miss Tarawee, right? Than it is to miss fudger. Fudger is the most one of the most important prayers. And in the month of Ramadan, it's especially important. So that's just an example of we have to be careful. The Nus throughout the year has developed tricks in its toolkit to try to get us to limit our reward. The goal of the Nus is to limit reward. Doesn't want you to get reward and wants you to incline towards vice. And the goal of the spirit is to help you incline towards virtue, help us incline towards virtue. So the Nus will come up with different stratagems and different approaches to try to limit the reward. And we'll say, Oh, if you do this, you'll be just fine. Oh, if you if you pray, for example, in Ramadan, sometimes we will pray a lot of Tarawee, but we have a lot of makeup prayers of the past that we should have made up, right? And we won't pray throughout the rest of the year. We won't even pray our prayers throughout the rest of the year. That's the Nus tricking us into into misprioritizing things. The goal is in Ramadan, we make we do our normal prayers, then we should prioritize making up past prayers, right? And then the whole year, we should prioritize praying, of course, we can't just only engage in extra worship in Ramadan, and then think that that that that kind of is enough. That's not the point of this month. But it is to show that when we do engage in extra, Allah gives us even more. And he gives us significant significant him in this month. And Alhamdulillah that there's there's so many things we could talk for for hours just about the rewards of the month of Ramadan, just about the practice of fasting, just about the different things that Allah has outlined in this month. But just know that generally speaking, there's different, there are different hadith, where the Prophet ﷺ indicates that the vast amounts of people who are forgiven in this month. So the next major takeaway is whatever sin we've done, or our family members have done, or whatever we've done as a community, that we can turn to Allah in this month. And it is a month where he'll, inshallah, forgive those sins. And we should turn to him sincerely and hope that if we're sincere, and we act according to what he wants us to do, by the end of the month, inshallah, our slate will be clean, inshallah, and we'll be forgiven for our sins, right? But we should not go in with the assumption that I can never be forgiven. That's that's you're limiting Allah's mercy. And we should not go in with the assumption for everybody else that Oh, they did something so big that they can't be forgiven. Don't limit God's mercy in this month. And it's an important time with the situation we're in to turn to Allah's families and as a community and really ask for immense, immense, immense forgiveness, inshallah. And there's there's there's also Hadith that indicate that the prayer of the fasting person is answered. The prayer of the fasting person is answered. So this is a good time for us to be engaging in making dua. Some of these things are obvious, but it's good just have like a few minutes a day, like five, 10 minutes a day every single day in the month of Ramadan, including the times of the prayers where we just sit and make dua. It's very important because sometimes we let that we're given all these spiritual shortcuts and secrets in our religion and we just let them pass by, right? An example of this especially is the time before opening the fast, the 20 minutes, 10, 15 minutes before opening the fast, we should sit at least five minutes as a family and everybody should go around a different day. Somebody should make dua, right? Have the father do it one day, the mom do it one day, the one of the children do it the other day. It shouldn't only be one person every day doing it. So we encourage other people how to make the dua, right? And do it in a in a way that it really inspires us to turn and have a relationship with Allah because what is the goal of Ramadan? As we mentioned In order that you may attain taqwa, which means to be in a state of being understanding Allah's presence Allah's that that Allah's aware of what we're doing, being God conscious. What does it also mean that the more you engage in conversation with Allah, the more you're aware of Him. So dua is very important in Ramadan and it's very important that we engage in time. Don't Allah's opening up the heavens and we'll accept the dua, inshallah, especially at the time when the fast is being opened. So don't the last thing we want to be doing is like watching the news right before the fast opens and then as soon as you know the time comes, the sun sets there, we you know quickly eat our dates and we go back to oh there's no tarawi anymore. So I'm just going to go back to watching the news or watching Netflix or whatever. The last thing we want to be doing when the mercy is being descended is watching Tiger King. No, that's not how we want to approach this month. We want to approach this month in a state of turning towards Allah and now this we should slowly leave all the stuff that we've been doing that's that's generally not a good use of our time. We should leave it over the course of the next week so that as Ramadan comes, we're ready. We're prepared for this spiritual struggle that we are supposed to engage in. Once we've understood these virtues, Hamdulillah, these are just some of the virtues of the month of Ramadan. Then we should understand that there are levels of fasting and we need to set our Himmah high with regards to our level of the goal that we want to fast. So you have the first level of fasting. This is mentioned in Imam al-Ghazali, he mentioned this in his book on the secrets of fasting. That the first level of fasting is you're fasting from not eating haram or not sorry not eating anything at all right and not drinking anything. It's the fasting which generally just results in hunger but that person they may still engage in gossiping about people and looking at haram and listening to bad and listening to you know all this all the disrespectful music that's out there all these types of things we might still engage in right. So that is the first level of fasting. It's just with the food and the drink and that level it's fine. It gets the obligatory kind of component out of the way but it's not spiritually the goal. The spiritually the goal is not just to write an example of this would be okay we we stay up all night not doing much right just like hanging out watching tv living our normal life. We eat the sahur in the morning time. We wake up at like two three p.m. and then there's a few hours left of fasting in that time. We don't really do anything. We get up whatever prayers etc we can in and then we just the only thing we did is flipped our schedule in the month. Still did the same stuff didn't engage in any extra worship and we simply just got hunger and thirst out of it. That's not the goal of the month. The goal of the month is to advance. It is a spiritual time it's a spiritual secret it's a spiritual boot camp for us to really work on ourselves. So we want to try to go away from the first level. Then there's the second level of fasting which is now fasting with the different limbs including refraining from food. So this is the person who is trying to refrain from lying. They're trying to refrain from backbiting. They're trying to refrain from talking bad about people and gossiping. They're trying to refrain from looking at the haram and trying to lower their gaze. They're trying to refrain from listening to bad things. They're trying to refrain from extra talk that's not beneficial. They're trying to refrain from all these different things that we're caught up in. Now what that does is the first level okay the fast inshallah Allah Allah is the one who accepts inshallah that fast is accepted but the reward of the fast can be diminished. Every time we backbite the reward decreases. Every time we look at the haram the reward decreases because what are you doing? You're staying away right? Again water in any normal month in any month is halal. It's halal. Normal water is okay. If I'm staying away from water but I'm engaging in like looking at you know bad images on the internet. I'm not looking at the haram but I'm staying away from halal. I'm confused. If I'm staying away from again food like staying away from rice during the day and all the other types of food but I'm talking bad about people and I'm like did you hear what she said and this person did and can you believe that and all these types of things that we engage in these conversations that we engage in which most of the time when we start talking about people 95% of the time it's usually bad. Very few times is it positive and usually the good even is sprinkled with bad because the nature of the nafs is to try to assert itself by bringing someone else down. It wants to do that right? So what ends up happening? Okay the reward goes. So now what's happening? You're staying away from food and drink. We're staying away from food and drink but we're engaging in something worse right? We're engaging in the haram. That's not the goal. That's not the goal of the month. So the second level of fasting is the level where we are protective of our eyes, we're protective of our ears, we're protective of our mouth, we're protective of our heart, we're protective of all of these different aspects of the human being and that's the level we want to try to get to where we are actually elevating ourselves in this month right? And so what do we start with? Okay I'm going to start with everything I look at that's not good to look at. Okay do I look at impermissible images of women or men? Usually now it's going to be on our devices, on our Instagrams, on our phone, on TV, are we watching things where it's inappropriate, right? What exactly our reach and have we become desensitized? It's important to understand some of us are desensitized to bad images. Well that's no big deal because in this society it's filled with inappropriate images out there. It's filled with it right? Okay so that's something to go. Something we need to put away for this month right? That let's put away the the haram of the eyes. Okay we take a we look at the next thing. How often do I talk bad about people? So what do I do in this month? Well first of all in Ramadan most of us will be tired because we can't when we're not going to want to have extra conversation so limit that conversation then. Let's limit the amount that the tongue engages in haram and let's limit the amount that the tongue engages in talking smack about people or lying and all these things. And keep in mind that anytime we do anytime like the parents might engage in this it's a very clear sign for the kids to take a signal that oh sinning is is kind of like uh it's not that serious. It's a bit it's like doing good is optional because we may think like I see this happen a lot of people are super super super strict about like a clothing let's say with like clothing for their children and yet they're very unstrict about how much talking smack goes on. That's in the Muslim household. That's that's a complete misprioritization of things right that somebody who's talking a lot of bad about people but is on one case super strict is confusing the children is confusing what's important what's not. The goal is have both there we should be uh at at a balanced level we should encourage modesty and encourage all these type virtues that the Prophet ﷺ wants us to have and we also need to encourage that inward modesty of not not thinking we're better than somebody by talking bad about them right but this misprioritization sometimes that's there is very very very risky. And so we go limb by limb and we examine this and inshallah we'll try to speak about this more in a formal Ramadan prep class that hopefully we'll do before the month begins. And then what is the fasting of the ears that is the fat listening to listening to Haram. So if I'm fasting all day but like I got my you know Drake or Lil Wayne or whichever rapper I prefer whichever obscene artist I prefer and I'm just listening to them all day on my portable AirPods. Okay what's what's I mean again the heart is getting filled with and I'm still I'm still staying away from water it doesn't make sense now I'm not saying go and drink water and eat just because we're caught up in that no but it's a time to work on ourselves what do we do we decrease it if we have to listen to music okay and this month I'm going to pick less vulgar artists to listen to I'm going to pick artists that are a little bit cleaner and then the second 10 days of the month I'm going to pick artists that are even better and then the third 10 day maybe I'll try to just stay away from music all together just so that I don't pollute my heart right these are the gradual steps we take it doesn't mean day one we have to change everything but day one we need to be on a path to change everything because Allah says that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what's in themselves and so that intention is the goal that matters the most we are on a path to change we're not just on a path of eh what's the big deal everybody does it that's the whole point we're supposed to be the people who are setting the example Allah says in the Qur'an that you were the best people ever sent forth to humanity why that you enjoin good and you forbid evil you are trying to set the example for people you're trying to be role models and everybody's engaged in everything else in this society we should be the people that come on am I really gonna really gonna get caught up in that is that really my goal that all this petty political back and forth even now you have at the chi political levels there's like constant back and forth on twitter just about people's people's how they're doing in their jobs and their and their political roles whatever it is we don't we're not supposed to get to that level we're supposed to be focused on other things that's not the goal is to engage in these types of petty things same thing with just we listen to everything that's popular these days just because it's popular no we have to is it is it encouraging obscenity right is it encouraging immorality are we somebody who says we speak out a lot against like misogyny and misogynistic behavior and yet we promote rappers who in their lyrics they're misogynistic meaning that they're degrading women where is the line there right we have to examine at what point we're going to draw the line and what point we're going to take it seriously and this is a Ramadan where we should take these things inshallah very seriously so there are lots of different things here we'll we'll dive deeper into them inshallah in a future conversation there is fasting of the heart right that the heart shouldn't think bad thoughts and that the heart shouldn't let negative energies get into it and then there's fasting even with regards to making sure we don't overeat when the time for for iftar comes because the goal of fasting is to discipline the nuffs the nuffs is disciplined when food is limited and appetites are limited two things discipline the nuffs food limitation limitation of sexual desires which usually come from the eyes or of course from other parts of our body if you limit both of them the nuffs begins the disciplinary process it's very simple just like working out if somebody is trying to get stronger and they get on the bench press and they bench 80 pounds and then they bench 100 pounds and then they bench 120 pounds and they gradually increase the number of reps for the amount of weight and they're eating properly they're going to get muscle it's very very simple as long as you're following a protocol the nuffs when it's being disciplined we'll get disciplined but if after all of the disciplining is done throughout the day we give it five times at night I'm going to eat 10 samosas and five pakoras and this jot and that and then I'm going to have a muffin I mean all these types of things that we give the nuffs the discipline didn't work because it knows oh it's just delaying the pleasure the goal is limit the eating overall decrease it right Ramadhan should not be a time of overindulgence at night it should be a time of limited no indulgence in the day and limiting what we give the nuffs at night okay you fasted all day I'm going to give you some good food that you wanted but I'm not going to overeat to the point where I feel so stuffed that I can't stand in prayer and that type of thing so our goal just whatever level we're at let's assess let's come up with the plan and let's realize a few things one it's a very virtuous month it's a month of change it's a month of forgiveness it's a month of mercy it's what we need right now as a community it's what we need as a global community that we need this time to really reflect on ourselves and change ourselves and then the next thing is find out what level of fasting you want to aspire to and then start to work on it start to work on it start to work on it have a plan ready and realize that it does not it's not difficult for a lot to change us completely it's not hard for him he just has to say kun fa ya kun be and it is and he can make us completely different people but the real question is do we take the first step because Allah says that the one who comes close to him a hand span he comes close to him an arm span and the one who comes to him walking he comes to them running we need to start running to Allah we need we should turn to Allah sincerely ask him for assistance on this blessed day of Juma inshallah ask him that he make this Ramadan a blessed one for us and for all of our loved ones and inshallah this will be the month and the time for us to change and inshallah we will emerge from this month of Ramadan different people in having a state of taqwa having a state of God consciousness and a very very beautiful relationship with Allah we ask that Allah bless this month for us for you for all of our communities and for all of our loved ones that he protect us in this time that he remove this calamity from humanity and that he shower his looks down upon us our communities and our loved ones wa salallahu wa salam wa barik ala sayyiduna Muhammadin wa aali wa sahb al-salam alhamdulillahi rabbilalameen jazakum ala khair salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi