 In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. It's a pleasure to be here again this evening. I was fortunate and it was my honor to be at a similar gathering here at MCC last year, last Ramadan that we did. And so it's always a wonderful opportunity and one that is, I'm honored that is afforded to me to share this space with you. I just wanted to maybe say a few introductory remarks and then like I said, I think we want to leave at least some time for a question and answer. And as I like to do when asked to not only speak to, well, when I'm asked to speak about Ramadan in general or fasting, is to sort of take a step back and put or examine Ramadan within the overall rubric of ibadah or worship in Islam. Because I think that to frame the conversation around Ramadan as we would frame the conversation around ibadah as a whole or worship as a whole is imperative. Because it's not, it is singular and unique in some ways, obviously, the very act of fasting, but also it is similar to other manifestations or expressions of worship that we find within the Muslim tradition, within the Islamic tradition. And so I want to frame Ramadan or a conversation around fasting within this context. And that context is very simple. The first question or the first thing that I like to discuss or look at when we talk about framing ibadah as a whole is, well, let me first back up even a little, take a step back even more so and say that, you know, in the Quran, Allah Ta'ala, God Almighty, he says, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنْ وَالْإِنْسْ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ, right? He says that indeed that we have created mankind and jinn kind, man and jinn for the sole purpose of ibadah or worship of God. So worship being the paramount purpose of existence. The paramount reason for creation, for the purpose that we are created is to worship God. And so Allah here, God Almighty, is framing our very purpose of existence, right? It's the meta question, why are we here? What, you know, what is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of life? I would submit that this is one of those answers or responses that we find in the Quran that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, God Almighty is responding specifically to those very questions of existence, which is to say that the purpose of our existence, the purpose of life, the meaning of life, is obudiyah, is worship of God. And so that is the purpose for which we are created. Now then one may ask, well okay, I understand that I'm created to worship or I'm created or as one of my teachers, you know, he says that we are, by our very creation, we are homo-religious. We are beings who are inclined towards worship, right? I mean, Sister Keisha shared her story. We are inclined towards seeking out the meaning of life. We are inclined towards answering or attempting to answer those broader questions of, well, what is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of life? And so what the Quran here is trying to do and what Allah, what God Almighty is trying to do here is to provide that answer and that answer is worship and that we are, it is within our DNA as it were. It is within our very, the very fabric of our being to worship our Creator. That is the natural state of human beings is to worship God. It is in fact unnatural. It is in fact going against human nature, going against the grain as it were. If we reject God, if we don't turn to God, that is actually what is or is anomalous. That is what is outside of the frame of what should come naturally to human beings. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he said that every child, that every child that is born is born in this state of fitrah. Fitrah being the sort of primordial nature of man and woman, mankind, humankind, is that we are created with this immaculate state and that immaculate state that creation finds itself in, that human beings are created in, is to worship God. That is the fitrah, the fitrah that God given nature, that every child is born in a state of, that God given nature that is inculcated, that is placed within our DNA as it were, is to worship God. That is what is our fitrah nature, that is what is our primordial nature, that is the nature that God has created us with. And it is then environmental circumstances, societal reasons, that human beings reject their fitrah or they turn away from their fitrah, or that their fitrah, their God given nature, is corrupted by environmental factors or societal factors. So our God given pure and immaculate state that we are born in, and I should probably just mention this even though it is not exactly germane to what we are talking about, but here we find a rejection of the notion of human beings born in a state of sin. We are not born sinful, we are not born in a state of sin, and that is not meant to be anti-Christian or anything like that, but it's a point of fact. It's a statement of where in lies the primary or the initial or the seminal difference or the point of departure between Islam and Christianity, and I imagine most of us, many of us who have come to the faith, who have come into Islam, come so from a Christian tradition, or perhaps an agnostic or a non-religious tradition, but nonetheless we are informed or we are imbued by these Christian notions of religion and so on, and one of those notions is this idea of being born in a state of sin. Well Islam says that you are born immaculate, you are born free from blemish, you are born in a state of absolute purity, and that state of absolute purity is that you worship God, that every human being is born with that God-given nature to worship God. And so again, going back to what I was saying, so then one may ask, well okay, that's fine, I accept, or I confer that we are born in this state or that we are born for the sole purpose of worship, but how do I worship? Or why do I worship? Why should I worship? And so that presents what theologians or philosophers may call the ontological question. That's the sort of broad, that's like the meta question. Okay, you believe in God, you have faith in God, you believe that you should worship God, but how do you worship God, or why should I worship God? Well the very simple answer to that ontological question, that meta question of why I should worship God, is what? The answer to why we worship God is because God asks us to do so. We worship God for the sole purpose of His pleasure. We worship God because God has asked us to worship Him. And the verse that I recited at the very outset, that mankind has been created, humanity has been created for the sole purpose, no other purpose, sole purpose of worship. So we worship God because that's what God has instructed us to do. So that presents the sort of answer or response to that, again, that meta question, that ontological question of why is it that I worship God? I worship God because God instructs me to do so, or has commanded me to do so. Now, one of the most salient qualities or characteristics of God is that He is a God of mercy, He is a God of love, He is a God of compassion, right? God tells us, or through what is known as a Hadith Qutsi, or where God, or the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is telling us specifically what God tells us, so it's another form of revelation, as it were, but it's not scripture, it's not the Quran, wherein God tells us, Rahmat-e-Sabaqat Ghadibi, that my mercy, my compassion, my love, it trumps, if you pardon that expression, it over-encompasses, it is far broader than my anger, that His primary character, His most salient feature of Allah is His Rahma, is His merciful nature. In fact, it is written, this again is something we find in Muslim tradition, that it is written on the throne of God, on His Arsh, Rahmat-e-Sabaqat Ghadibi, that indeed my mercy prevails over my anger, over my displeasure, over my wrath. His mercy is His most pervasive quality, right? Every surah in the Quran practically begins with what? In the name of Allah, Bismillah, and then it qualifies who Allah is, Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, that He is the most merciful, the most compassionate, the most loving. In another hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, we find where the Prophet said that Allah divided love or mercy into a hundred parts, a hundred parts, and he kept 99 of those parts to himself. He retained 99 out of 100 parts of mercy, of love, of compassion to himself. And so whatever love, whatever of love that we know, whatever of compassion that we know, whatever of mercy that we know and that we experience in our lives is but one part, but one part out of a hundred parts of love, of mercy and compassion. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said that that is best exemplified by a love that a mother has for her child. The love of a mother, the compassion and the mercy of a mother to her child. That is the best example of what is the one part of mercy that is found in the rest of creation. The rest of the 99 parts of love, mercy and compassion is something that Allah has retained for himself. So Allah is Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. He is the most merciful, the most loving. We are in the hands of a most merciful God, of a most loving God. And so it is out of that mercy and generosity and love and compassion that not only does God instruct us to worship him, but he also places within worship benefits that we can accrue. Benefits and values and virtues that we can acquire, that we can build, that we can accumulate by worshiping him. So we worship God, why? Because God has asked us to worship him. But out of his mercy, out of his infinite mercy and love and compassion for us, he has placed within worship benefits and values that each and every one of us can achieve and attain. So as I said, I'm going to try to frame this within the conversation of Ramadan because that's what I was asked to talk about this evening, of course. We find ourselves in the 14th or so day of fasting, 13th, 14th day of fasting. So certainly fasting is on our minds, especially at 740 when you're about to break your fast. Fasting is very much on your mind. But nonetheless, to examine fasting as but one part of this contract of worship in Islam. So as I said, so out of Allah's benevolence and mercy, we have certain values and benefits that we can accrue by simply fulfilling an obligation that he has prescribed. So God is saying, okay, do this. Do this because I'm asking you to do so. But it doesn't just end there. God says, I'm asking you to do this. I'm commanding you to do this. But by doing it, you, you will also, each of us will also achieve value and benefit. We can acquire and achieve value and benefit in worshiping him. And so then we turn our focus to those values and benefits that we find in Ibadah. Again, I'm talking about worship as a whole, right? That includes fasting, that includes prayer, that includes charity, right? It includes all of those, what we would probably define or characterize as ritualized worship, right? Ritualized worship of God, prayer, fasting, charity. These are ritualized ways that we worship God. But we also worship God, and I'll talk about this towards the end. We also worship God through other means, right? There's other modalities, if you will. I mean, again, a fancy word. And other expressions of worship that are beyond the ritualistic, that are beyond those things that we would characterize as ritual worship. But I'm going to focus here specifically on those ritual aspects of worship. So prayer, fasting, zakah, charity, performing the pilgrimage, right? These are rituals that we do for the sake of worship, for worshiping God. So now when we look at values and benefits, we find that values and benefits fall within two categories. There are two categories of benefit or values that we accrue or that we achieve or that we can achieve through worshiping God. The first of those, the first of those values or benefits, right? It's almost like you want it like a flowchart here, but try to, maybe if you're taking notes you can draw it out or you can imagine it, if you're not. The first is what, again, these are big words, but I don't use big words just for the sake of using big words. But rather, as someone coming from a religious studies background, you're sort of trained to speak in this language. So I think value and benefit, if you will, in understanding these terms or talking about religion within these terms. Because I think also many times we engage in conversations with our family members who are probably of other faiths or just conversations around religion with coworkers and so on. So it's important, I think, to speak in the religious language, in a language that religious scholars tend to study and look at religion. So the first value or the first set or types of values and benefits that we can accrue by worshiping God are eschatological. What I mean by that is eschatological refers to benefits or values that we attain in the life hereafter. Right? That's eschatology, belief in the end times or the life hereafter. Eschatological benefits. So the first value or the first set of values or benefits that we can achieve or accrue by worshiping God are eschatological values and benefits. That is to say that these are values and benefits that you achieve, that each and every one of us, inshallah, by God's will, that each and every one of us achieves by worshiping Him through these various ways, fasting being one of them, so that we accrue benefit and value in the akhirah, in the life hereafter. And we know that there is a direct link, there is a direct connection between this life, Hayat Dunya as the Quran refers to it, and the akhirah. One cannot attain, one cannot achieve a station or a position or cannot attain felicity and happiness in the akhirah, in eternity, in the life after death, unless they live a life that is of morality and virtue in this life. So the life in, that this life is very much linked to the akhirah, and that the only way that we can achieve a better place in the life hereafter is based on how we live this life. So this life isn't meaningless, this life isn't, you know, in some other religious traditions, this life isn't just an illusion, it's not just a maya, it's not just illusion. This life has purpose, this life has meaning, and the meaning and purpose of this life is so that we may achieve the best state in the life hereafter. That's the direct correlation. Or, to put it differently, one cannot achieve a place in the hereafter that is a place of love and mercy and compassion and God's presence without living a life of certain defining characteristics in this life. So again, they're directly connected and linked. So the first set of values that we achieve through worship of God are values and benefits in the akhirah, in the life hereafter. Now those are values that we may never get a sense of. You don't know what values and benefits you're actually accruing. You know, you don't have an insight, you can't, there's not an app that you can log into and check what your bank balance is in the life hereafter. It just doesn't work that way, right? In fact, even the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, when they asked him, you know, O messenger of God, why do you stay up all night and you pray? You know, you've been guaranteed paradise. You've been guaranteed God's bliss and God's happiness and God's pleasure in the life hereafter. Why do you worship? He said, shall I not then be a grateful servant to God? So even the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, worshipped God out of expectation of reward in the life hereafter. Out of a sincere belief that by worshipping him in this life, that he would attain his pleasure, Allah's pleasure, God's pleasure in the life hereafter. So unfortunately, while none of us have that insight into our bank balance in the akhirah, nonetheless, we believe, we believe. It is in fact a part of why we worship God. It's an integral cardinal part of why we worship God is to sincerely believe that by worshipping God, you will achieve God's pleasure in the akhirah. That's an integral component of worship. That you don't worship God just, you know, ex nihilio, like just for nothing. You worship God because you truly believe that if you worship him, that he will reward you in the life hereafter. So that expectation, that longing, that thalab, that desire to be rewarded by God in the life hereafter is an integral component of worship. So we worship God with that expectation, with that hope that God will reward us in the life hereafter. And so as I said, we don't have an insight into that. And we hope and pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that God Almighty will reward us for all that we do. That he will reward us exponentially for all that we do. And we don't know, and it's important that we talk about exponential value, because especially in this month of Ramadan, because we don't know how many times multiplied over our reward will be in the life hereafter. So you may think, okay, you know, I'm doing one good deed. But in this month, that one good deed can be rewarded 70 times or 100 times or an infinite number of times in the life hereafter. And we find this time and time again in the prophetic teachings, right? You know, the prophet reminds us about a man who, well, he asked his companions, can you tell me the definition of a miser or a bankrupt person, excuse me, of a bankrupt person, someone who's bankrupt? And he said, well, a bankrupt is a person who's lost all of his money. He said, no, a bankrupt person, someone who is truly bankrupted is that they will come on the day of judgment with a mountain of good, and I'm paraphrasing here a bit, that a person will come on the day of judgment with so much good deeds at his, you know, his bank balance is overflowing with good deeds, but then so and so will come forward, because that person was lied to or was cheated by that person, by the person with this, you know, this mountain of good deeds. And so sure, and so a portion of that person's good deeds will be given to the person that he lied to or that he cheated or that he was disrespectful towards and so on, and soon more and more people come. And so by the end of it, by the time that the accounting is done, so many people have come forward with claims, if you will, against this person, that they will be left with none of their good deeds anymore. And so not only that, but that there's still a line of people waiting for their justice. And so not only will this person's good deeds be exhausted, but rather that the bad deeds of the people that he wronged or she wronged or was oppressive against or lied to or cheated and so on, that those persons, those people, their bad deeds will be accrued upon that person. And so that's the definition of someone who is truly bankrupt because that person not only came with this huge balance of reward and he saw that reward be completely decimated, but not only that, that now he's beginning to accrue negative deficits because of all the people that he is wronged and that's the definition of bankruptcy or that's the definition of a person who's truly bankrupt or that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam reminding us of a person or a woman who, I mean, she was a woman of the night. She literally sold her body for the pleasure of others. I mean, she was a prostitute. And she comes upon this well and she sees this dog that's suffering, right? And so she takes her shoe off and she gets down into the well and we've all heard this hadith or we've probably come across this hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and she takes out the water through her boot or her shoe and then gives it to the dog and that based upon that good deed, that solitary good deed of giving water to this animal, to this dog, right, that she attained paradise or that she was forgiven of all of her sins based upon that single deed and so that's what I mean when I say that we don't know, we don't have an insight into those rewards, right? And in the context of fasting, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said that a person who fasts has at least minimum, has two rewards. One is the reward of the if-thought, when you break your fast. That's a reward and that's certainly an immediate reward, right? We quench our thirst. We satiate our hunger at the moment of breaking our fast. That's certainly a moment of joy and felicity and happiness for the fasting person, the person who's fasting. The other day or the other moment or occasion of felicity and happiness for the fasting person is when, is in the life hereafter, is in the Akhra, when they are rewarded exponentially for their fast. And so again, although we don't have an insight or we don't have a way of knowing where we stand on the day of judgment, we hope and we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepts our good deeds, say Amin, but not only that, but that he rewards us exponentially for our good deeds, Amin. That is our hope and benefit. And it's also important to note here a very important theological principle which is that we, despite our best efforts, or in spite of our best efforts, and no matter how good we think we are or how good we are truly, that we will not attain salvation. And this is important. That we will not achieve reward or paradise in the life hereafter by our good deeds alone. By our good deeds alone. And this is something that even the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said about himself. So who are we in comparison to our beloved Prophet? Right? To our Prophet. We learn by emulating him. And he tells us that even him, even he, he does not, he will not achieve salvation based upon good deeds alone, but rather that Allah envelops him, wraps him in the shroud of his mercy and love and compassion. And so not only do we worship God out of sincere belief that he will reward us, but we understand that we as human beings will always fall short. And because we will always fall short, what we can hope for is in God's mercy. What we hope for is that God will have enough mercy and love and compassion in dealing with us on that day that he will enter us into paradise. I mean, that is our belief. So the first benefit or value of worship at large, but fasting in particular, is that we hope for benefit and value in the life you're after. But also, again, out of the love and the mercy of God, there is another kind of value and benefit that we can also achieve or accrue through worshiping him, but through worshiping God. And that or those types of values and benefits are what I like to call or what is referred to as utilitarian value and benefit. So one, we have eschatological value. That is to say that these are values and benefits that we will achieve in the life you're after. And then there is utilitarian value and benefit. And what do I mean by that? Value and benefit that we see the utility of right here in this life. So we achieve a form of value and benefit in worshiping him in this life. And we find this through all of our acts of worship, right? All of our acts of worship. And we don't have the time, right? We don't have the time to go into that in exhaustive detail. But because we're talking about fasting, let's look at fasting alone. The utilitarian value and benefit of fasting, right? And we can almost sort of, I can go around the room and imagine many of us can enumerate the benefits or values that we achieve through fasting. We know that medically speaking, right? And now medicine or modern medicine is, you know, there's exhaustive research about the benefits of intermittent fasting. What fasting does to our bodies, what it does to our metabolism, what it does to our lowering our triglycerides, lowering our bad cholesterol, increasing our good cholesterol, what it does for our cardiovascular health, diabetes, and so on. So many health benefits, medically proven benefits of fasting. But do we fast because we want to get a better ticker or a better heart? No. We worship God because God asks us to do so. We fast because God says, that God has prescribed, has ordained, has commanded us to fast. But out of the mercy of God, we also get to achieve and accrue these utilitarian values and benefits. So one of these values and benefits of fasting is that we can attain better health. It's better for ourselves, better for our bodies, better for our well-being. Fasting has proven medical benefits. Another utilitarian value that we learn through fasting is what? Restraint. Self-control. Certainly controlling our appetites. Every one of us is born with an ego. An ego is but one manifestation of our nafs. In Islamic tradition, we refer to as the nafs, which is our base appetites. And the ego falls within our nafs. The idea of ego, of wanting to be someone, wanting to be recognized for who we are, that's all base desires. That's all our nafs desiring to be known, to being respected and so on. But our nafs is an integral part of who we are. We cannot ever destroy our nafs. We will never kill off our nafs because we are human beings. Human beings are born with that part of their composite. We are born as creatures who have appetites. Those appetites may be physical, right? Excuse me, those appetites may be emotional, but we all have desires. We all have appetites. That's a part of the human experience. And that will never, ever go away because that's who we are as human beings. And while we may never attain complete freedom from our appetites, right? While we may never be fully emancipated from our appetites, we can certainly subjugate our appetites. We can certainly enslave our appetites so that we are not a slave to our nafs, but rather that our nafs is in control by us, that we hold the keys, that we are the masters of our nafs, of our appetites, rather than our appetites governing us, rather than our appetites subjugating us. That's why we live our life. That's the purpose of life. That's one of the purposes of worship, is so that we can attain a mechanism, a means by which we can subjugate our nafs. We can subjugate our egos. We can subjugate our base appetites. And fasting is a beautiful example, a beautiful mechanism by which we subjugate our base desires of hunger, of thirst, of sexual satisfaction, right? The way we do that, the way that God has given us, or we have with us a God-given means or mechanism by which we can learn to control those appetites of hunger, of lust. And it's interesting, you know, hunger, when we talk about hunger or lust or these appetites, these fall within what, in Catholicism or Christianity, are known as the seven deadly sins, right? These are the cardinal sins, gluttony, gluttony and lust being two of the seven cardinal sins, right? Imam al-Ghazali wrote a book, one of the chapters of his opus, Ihaunumuddin, reviving of the Islamic sciences, is the suppression of the two appetites, and the two appetites that he is referring to is lust and gluttony, lust and gluttony. And both of those appetites, fasting is a way or a mechanism or a means by which we can subjugate those two appetites. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said that whosoever can guarantee me that which lies between his jawbone and between his two thighs, that is to say our tongue, our appetites, or tongue can mean many things, but one of the things it means is certainly our lust for food, our desire for food, but also our genitalia, our sexual organs, our sexual impulses, that if a person can guarantee me those two things that I will write for him or I have guaranteed for that person, paradise, because these are the two desires that get us into a host of troubles, right? Not only in this life, but certainly in the life hereafter. So a means by which we can achieve or we can try and subjugate those appetites of gluttony, of constantly wanting to eat and satiate our appetites of hunger and thirst is fasting, a way and means by which we can subjugate our appetite of lust and sexual desire and promiscuity is fasting. And this is why fasting was a practice that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, peace be upon him, instructed those in his midst, those companions who didn't have the means of marrying or they weren't married. He said, yeah, you're a human being, you're a man, you're a woman, you have sexual desires, but one of the ways you can control that appetite, control those desires if you don't have the means of marriage is to fast, because fasting is a tried and true method of subjugating or bringing into control those appetites. So we learn self-restraint, we learn self-control. That's another utilitarian value and benefit of fasting. Another utilitarian value and benefit, and as I said, we don't have the time to make this like an exhaustive list, but certainly what I hope is that this is, and I'll conclude with these, or I'll conclude with why I speak or I went into these utilitarian values and benefits as I conclude, but one of the other values and benefits that we learn through fasting is time consciousness, right? We're at eight o'clock or we're past eight o'clock. We're aware of that time, we're aware of the time. We're aware of the minutes ticking by as it's time to break our fast. We are aware of time. Time, we literally are counting down the seconds in the morning when we're having that pre-dawn meal to the last bite that you can take or that last morsel of food that you hope will last you through the day. So we're aware of time. We're conscious of time, perhaps better at it, or we have a more acute sense of time than perhaps any other moment throughout the year as we do when we're fasting. So one of the things that we learn through fasting is being conscious of time, but guess what? Time and time leaving us and time having its impact on our lives is something that is a lesson that we should take outside of Ramadan. It's not just something that we should be conscious of in Ramadan, but rather these are values and benefits that we can attain and achieve in these months, in this month, excuse me, of 29 or 30 days so that we can carry that practice throughout the year. And again, as I said, we don't have the time to go into all of these utilitarian values and benefits, but what we have to pause and reflect upon, brothers and sisters, especially as we reflect upon Ramadan, is this. That by the benefit of Allah, by the ni'mah of Allah, by God's grace, Ramadan is something that we get to experience, God willing, annually, every year. It's like a time check. It's like a gut check, literally. It's literally an opportunity that, like clockwork, like the calendar, it allows us to check ourselves. It allows us a moment to pause and to take inventory. That's what Ramadan is. Ramadan is that moment that we should gauge ourselves because it's something that recurs and it comes every year. It's an opportunity for us to check ourselves. So it's a barometer. It's a gauge. Where am I with regards to my relationship with God? Am I better this year? Is my fast more meaningful? Am I doing more in Ramadan than I did last year? Or for those of us who are new to the faith, like Sister Kay, and this is our first fast, where am I with my fast this year and how can I improve on it next year? How can I make next Ramadan? God willing. God gives me life and well-being that I can fast next year in a better state. And so Ramadan is that barometer. It's that opportunity for us to check ourselves, to take inventory. Where are we with regards to our relationship with God, with regards to our relationship with His Scripture? Because one of the interesting things about Ramadan is, if we were to play a game of word association, how are we doing on time? Just give me a time check. Okay, sure. Right. And we're not allowed to bring food in here, right? Okay, right, sorry. Maybe outside. And I'm happy to do so while we eat, as we can just sit around breaking our fast. Is this, is that... What was I just talking about? Sorry. Anybody? Wow. Sorry? No, it was right beyond time. It was right after time. Sorry? Right. If I were to play a game of word association, thank you. If I were to play a game of word association, if I were to say Ramadan, the first thing most of us would probably say is what? Fasting. Or would say hunger, maybe, right? If we're being real. Like keeping it real, right? Hunger. And that's fair. That's a fair association, certainly. But in terms of the way the Quran characterizes it, what we should associate Ramadan with is not so much fasting as it is what? Scripture. Quran. That the month of Ramadan, the only time that God mentions the month of Ramadan by name. Shahruh Ramadan. Shahruh Ramadan. Shahruh Ramadan. Shahruh Ramadan aladhi unzila fihil Quran. He refers to the month of Ramadan as being the month in which the Quran was revealed. And what's interesting is that the verse that we, the verse that precedes it, the verse, a few verses before it, which is the verse of fasting. Yahu aladina amanu. Kutab alaikum al-siyam. Kama kutab ala aladina min qablikum la'allakum tatukun. That oh you who believe, oh people of faith, fasting has been commanded to you as it was commanded to those before you so that you may attain or achieve God consciousness. That that verse of fasting doesn't actually, wasn't revealed at the moment of Ramadan. Rather it was revealed to simply instruct that earliest community of the prophet and his companions that fasting was a way of worship. They actually fasted not in the month of Ramadan. This was before the fasting of Ramadan was actually ordained or was, you know, was commanded. So that earliest community was instructed to fast throughout the year and they fasted on days throughout the year. And those were the days that were required for that earliest community to fast even before the command for fasting in the month of Ramadan was revealed. But when Allah Ta'ala, when God Almighty talks about the month of Ramadan what He inextricably links the month of Ramadan with is scripture. And so this is an opportunity for us to reorient ourselves, to recalibrate our relationship with his book, with God's book. And this is why, you know, in Muslim universities and centers of learning they would close off books of jurisprudence, of law, of theology, of grammar, all of the various sciences that they were learning. Hadith, they close those books. And the only thing that they would engage in and study was the study of the Qur'an and more specifically the recitation of the Qur'an, the tilawah of the Qur'an. And for those of us who don't know how to read Arabic to perhaps listen to the tilawah of the Qur'an or to read the Qur'an in the English language the recitation of the Qur'an, the tilawah of the Qur'an is the most important form of worship that we can engage ourselves with in the month of Ramadan. That's what the month of Ramadan is about. And so it is an opportunity for us to reorient ourselves, to calibrate ourselves. That's what the month of Ramadan affords us. And finally, last but not least, right? And then we'll probably move over to break our fast and whatever questions we have we can do during that portion is that the month of Ramadan is like boot camp, right? The month of Ramadan is a catalyst. It's a period, it's a finite period, right? That's what boot camps usually are. They're a finite period. It's a finite period of time, 29 or 30 days, where we train and we really give it our all, right? We go all in, all in, pull out all the stops and we try to do as much as we can. Fast, do thicker, you know, worship God, give in charity, stand up at night and pray. You name it, right? We try to do our best in the month of Ramadan. It's like boot camp. But the purpose of boot camp isn't so that you slack off the rest of the year. The purpose of boot camp is so that you can continue and you can build on those gains in boot camp. That's why we engage in times in rigorous forms of exercise or any kind of training. You engage in that intense period, that crucible of intense training and regimented learning and building so that you can carry those gains throughout the rest of the year. That's the purpose of boot camp. Boot camp isn't just so you can rock that six pack, right? It's so that you can actually build on building a better health or have more strength or have more energy or whatever it is, whatever kind of boot camp you want to examine or you want to look at. The purpose of that boot camp is so that you are trained outside of the boot camp so that you have better habits, so that you engage in better behavior. You make better choices, right? And that's what Ramadan should be teaching us. Ramadan is a period of intense 29 or 30 days. But the values, the lessons, those things that we try and we do in this month of Ramadan shouldn't be limited just to the month of Ramadan. But rather, these are activities, these are things that we do in the month of Ramadan certainly at a heightened level, but that we should do so throughout the rest of the year. So let's just look at fasting as I wrap and conclude. I'm not going to actually wrap. That'd be true torture. But if I could conclude with this, is this, just look at fasting even, is the month of Ramadan the only time that we are actually recommended to fast or even where we find in Scripture or in Hadith of the Prophet or in practices of the Prophet where he fasted? Is the month of Ramadan the only time of the year that we have an opportunity to fast? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. In fact, every week, Mondays and Thursdays, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam it was his habit to fast a minimum of three days out of the year, what is known as the three white days or the three, you know, where you have the full moon really, the 13th, 14th, 15th, in fact, right now these days of the lunar cycle are times outside of the month of Ramadan to fast. In fact, we know that the very month after Ramadan that precedes Ramadan is the month of Shawwal. And in the month of Shawwal it is a highly recommended virtuous deed to fast the six days of Shawwal, to fast six days in the month of Shawwal. We are presented moments throughout the year, the 9th and 10th of Muharram, the day of Arafat and so on, so many moments that we have throughout the year that we can fast. And so just look at that as an example, that although we engage in this very intense period, but brother Munir among the many roles that he plays as the MCC octopus is keeping me in time, in time checking me, so I appreciate that. Is that we have this period to fast now in the month of Ramadan, but it's certainly something that we can engage in throughout the year. And so inshallah, you know, I pray that this Ramadan is a blessed one. I pray that this Ramadan is a beautiful month for all of us to attain and to achieve the blessings of God that literally rain down from the heavens that we can achieve in this month. I pray that Allah makes this a very special month for us, whether this is our first Ramadan or our 20th Ramadan, right, or our 40th Ramadan. May this Ramadan be a blessed one. I pray for our well-being, our health so that we can continue outside of the month of Ramadan. Thank you so much again for this opportunity. Inshallah, I think we'll move over to the next, to the, to the dining area where we'll break our fast. And maybe I'll take this microphone with me or we can engage in a Q&A period while we break our fast. Thank you so much. So much. Thank you so much.