 وَالْضْبِ اللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانَ الْرَجِيمِ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَانَ الْرَّهِيمُ وَبِيْهِ نَسْتَعِينَ وَالْسَلَاتُ وَالْسَلَامُ وَالَا خَيْلَ الْخَلْقِكِ وَخَاتِمْ هُلَا مْبِيَائِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ سَيْدَنَ الْأَوَلِينَ وَالْأَخَرِينَ وَالْحَبِيْا المُضْنِبِينَ رَحْمَةٌ لِلْعَلَمِينَ وَحَبِيبَ إِلَّاهِ الْعَلَمِينَ وَالْحَبِيبَ إِلَّاهُ وَأَهْلَهُ الذي سُمَّعَ في السماءِ بَأَهْمَدُ وَفَالْأَرَذِي بِأَبَ الْقَاسِ مُحَمَّدُ اللهم صلى الله عليه وسلم ومالسلات والسلام وعلى أهل بيتها الطيبين الطاهرين المأسومين المبلومين المنتجبين وعلى الله العديم في محكم كتابه كريم والقولوك الحق ولاستقل قائنين عوض بالله من الشيطان الرجيم أفلا يتدبرون القرآن أم على قلوب أخفالها أمنى بالله صدق الله العليء العديم صلى الله عليه وسلم وعالي محمد يوم الحقيبة الدورية초 مأ salvation وعلى الله العديم ويوم walk ويوم конц Glenn وكي ي Bacon أن تفتح مجموعة التي تأخذها في هذا المنزل المنزل is the change of our bodies when you have to fast for 16 hours for 30 consecutive days your body is going to change physically depending on the food that we eat the nights and the days they become very difficult for us but we see that narrations of the time in the house they stress that the month of Ramadan should be a month which changes our bodies physically for the better the Hadith from the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم it states that fast and you will become healthy thus during the month of Ramadan in reality we should be intaking a lot less not intaking the amount that we would normally eat in the last 7 or 8 hours when the sun has set so thus we come forth and we see that the first aspect of reformation during the holy month of Ramadan is bodily physical change that insha'Allah will improve our health and secondly and of course most importantly the dimension of spiritual change the change of our hearts and the change of our souls during this blessed month of Shah Ramadan that aspiration the goal is that our hearts are to be presented toward Allah سبحانه و تعالى with absolute purity at the culmination of these 30 days of the blessed month of Ramadan and when we take a look at this particular aspect of the human heart we see that the Holy Quran Allah سبحانه و تعالى has mentioned the Quran in terms of 3 different types the first type of heart that he mentions and when he mentions heart within the Quran or when the heart is mentioned within the narrations of Ahl Al-Bayt when I'm speaking about the physical heart or we're speaking about the spiritual heart we see that the spiritual heart is in 3 different phases the first phase is what is known as قلب سليم إلا من أت الله بقلب سليم the verse in the Holy Quran states that your children and that your wealth are going to be no use for you on the day of judgment the only thing that is going to be useful for you is the pure heart من أت الله بقلب سليم the second type of heart that Allah سبحانه و تعالى mentions within the Holy Quran is known as the sick heart he mentions several times في قلوبهم مرضا فزادهم الله مرضا that for these disbelievers who are constantly rejecting Allah سبحانه و تعالى their hearts are sick and when they continue to transgress Allah سبحانه و تعالى compounds that sickness and compounds that disease within their hearts the third type of heart that Allah سبحانه و تعالى mentions within the Holy Quran is what is known as قلوب قاسية or what is known as a hard heart these three levels the first level is the healthy the pure the clean heart the second level is the sick heart that has been inflicted by disease due to sin and the third heart is what is known as قلوب قاسية meaning the hard heart and Allah سبحانه و تعالى mentions that those individuals who are constantly forgetful of Allah سبحانه و تعالى in the days and the nights and after years and years of living on God's earth they completely are forgetful of him they have what is known as this hard heart now to put this all in perspective before we get into our discussion the first type of heart is that which we need to aspire to be that which we need to aspire to have the heart that is pure the heart that is clean the heart that has been purified is able to then be receptive to Allah سبحانه و تعالى as teachings the teachings of the Quran the teachings of the Prophet the teachings of Ahl al Bayt عليه وسلم see the heart like a sponge if the sponge is receptive if the sponge is pure if the sponge is clean if the sponge is new it's able to be receptive to water it's able to be receptive to liquids but after that heart has been abused after the body has continuously transgressed about Jesus الله سبحانه و تعالى like that sponge it becomes dirty and slowly it begins to gain these qualities of sickness في قلوبهم مرض الله سبحانه و تعالى states and in their hearts is a sickness we see that that sick heart is not able to be receptive to Allah سبحانه و تعالى in the same way that the clean pure heart would have been able to be and thirdly and finally is what is known as قلوب القاسية that hard heart like the sponge when the sponge is hard after it's been used for an extremely long time and there is no liquid on it we know that it's extremely difficult to break it's extremely difficult to squeeze similarly is the heart when it has transgressed the boundaries of Allah سبحانه و تعالى so much that no longer does it even reflect or think about الله سبحانه و تعالى in the least bits we need to desire to become amongst those who have the screen hearts now to put this in perspective a little bit further in order to understand the importance of having this clean heart we go ahead and we see that the side effects of having a heart that has been inflicted by disease are two the first one of these on one level is that we begin to doubt in the authority of Allah سبحانه و تعالى or even worse we begin to doubt in Allah سبحانه و تعالى entirely when an individual has constantly transgressed the boundaries of Allah and left that state of the purity of the heart and went toward the stages of sickness of the heart or went to the stage even worse of hard-heartedness we come forth and we see that the human being it begins to doubt in Allah سبحانه و تعالى we're all sitting over here fasting during the holy month of Ramadan we're very exhausted none of us would ever come forth and state that I am doubting in the authority or in the presence of Allah سبحانه و تعالى we don't do that but there's something that is connected to this doubt and that is not only doubting in the presence of Allah but perhaps we begin after constant transgression and sin to begin to doubt in the names and in the attributes of Allah سبحانه و تعالى for instance one group of people they come and they step forth and they state that I doubt if Allah سبحانه و تعالى is really merciful Allah سبحانه و تعالى look how much absent there is no way he's ever going to forgive me the minute that someone begins to talk like this they have despaired in all powerful in the all merciful Lord who has created us and this is a sign of doubting the existence of Allah سبحانه و تعالى itself very dangerous and less dangerous than that perhaps is doubting in the wrath of Allah سبحانه و تعالى someone who states they begin to reflect and they tell themselves you know what if I eat a little bit or if I drink a little bit during the holy month of Ramadan is Allah really going to punish me we don't know Allah سبحانه و تعالى is the authority and when he has told us to do something we should be willing to submit toward that immediately that is what it means to truly understand the tawheed of Allah سبحانه و تعالى but the minute that we see ourselves even having these thoughts enter into our mind Allah will never forgive me if I do this sin or Allah سبحانه و تعالى will never forgive me because I'm such a sinner or on the flip side that we state that Allah سبحانه و تعالى he won't punish me because these are only small sins that these are signs of having the disease of the heart present between our two shoulders this is on one level in terms of the symptoms of the disease of the hearts on a greater level on a more dangerous on a more worrisome level we come forth and we see that individuals they begin to completely reject the tawheed of Allah سبحانه و تعالى entirely not only doubting but they state we don't believe in God again when we come and reflect on that in terms of our hearts in terms of our souls we state you know what we all believe in God we pray and we fast and we do all of the obligatory actions we stay away from the haram at least we do our best to do so so thankfully we're not amongst those who reject Allah سبحانه و تعالى yes Alhamdulillah we have not reached that level but this particular aspect of rejecting the tawheed of Allah سبحانه و تعالى doesn't only mean rejecting God in terms of its essence or in terms of his names or in terms of his attributes but it begins by completely rejecting certain obligations in terms of obedience of Allah سبحانه و تعالى the religion of Islam is known as the religion of Islam because the word Islam means submission أميل المؤمنين إنهج البلاغة he states الإسلام كوة تسني the religion of Islam is the religion of submission submission toward God submission toward the Quran submission toward the Prophet submission toward the Imam of the أهل البيت عليهم الصلاة و الصلام that is what makes us a belief and I say all of this as an introduction toward getting to my topic of discussion and that is that when we come to reflect upon our hearts and our souls we need to understand that this month of شهر مضان is the month that we remove all of these sicknesses we remove this heart heartedness from our hearts and we begin to focus ourselves directing ourselves toward Allah سبحانه و تعالى so that we present ourselves with that purified heart with that purified heart إلا من أت الله بقلب سدي but the question is how do we become amongst those who cleanse our hearts and cleanse our souls and able to maximize the benefits within this blessed month and a narration from Imam محمد بن علين الباقر عليه الصلاة و الصلام he states لكل شيء ربي و ربي القرآن شحر رمضان that for everything that for every season that for everything there is a spring there is a climax to every period or for every concept and the climax of the Quran or the spring of the Quran is the holy month of رمضان that when the believer we strive our best to link our hearts and to link our souls with the Holy Quran then we are able to maximize that benefit and the blessing of this blessed month I know that today is the first day of the fast and I know that everyone is exhausted including myself but if you're following or to give me a little bit of a break please recite و الصلاوات على محمد و علين محمد that during this holy month of رمضان we need to make sure that we maximize our potentials with the book of Allah سبحانه و تعالى we need to make sure that number one we do not procrastinate when it comes to the recitation of the Holy Quran one day is about to pass us within 35 minutes or so we'll begin to break our fast and the first day of the month of رمضان has concluded how many of us recited the verses of the Quran today how many of us contemplated on the verses of the Holy Quran today we come forth and we see numerous traditions of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه و عليه و سلم emphasize the importance of the recitation of the Holy Quran we go ahead and we see a narration from the Holy Prophet he states اكثر فيه من تلاوته constantly increased within this holy month the recitation of the book of Allah سبحانه و تعالى and we go forth and we see that in the Holy Quran Allah سبحانه و تعالى gives the reason why we should be reciting it he states شفاء لما في الصدور that the Holy Quran is a cure for that which is within your chests meaning it is a cure for those diseases which are in your heart in order to cleanse our hearts from all of these diseases we need to constantly be in recitation of the Holy Quran and another narration from the Holy Prophet he states the Holy Prophet states that the one who recites one verse from the book of Allah سبحانه و تعالى within this holy month it is as if he has completed the entirety of the Quran within other months meaning that the reward for reciting one verse in the month of Ramadan is like reciting the entire Quran in other months we come forth and we see another narration from the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه و تعالى and the most important one he recites in this sermon of his on the last day of the month of Sha'ban for his companions he states make sure that you ask الله سبحانه و تعالى that you beg الله سبحانه و تعالى for two things within this holy month that you ask him for توفق توفق means divine intervention divine help that you ask الله سبحانه و تعالى for his divine help so that you can fast within this month and so that you can recite the Holy Quran meaning that my dear brothers and sisters that reciting the Holy Quran within this holy month like fasting within this holy month requires divine help that if we see ourselves for instance the first day of the month of Ramadan passing the second day the third day one week the night of later comes and then we begin we have to know that الله سبحانه و تعالى removed توفق from us he removed his divine blessing and his divine intervention from us if we see ourselves failing to recite the Holy Quran this is the Holy Prophet he states within this narration فسأل الله ربكم بنية صادق ask Allah with a clean intention وقلوب طاهراء in the pure heart that he blesses you and that he allows you and that he facilitates for you to recite the Holy Quran within these days and within these nights of the holy month of Shahra Ramadan we come forth and we see that reciting the Holy Quran is not sufficient but we have to take it to the next level and contemplate upon these verses upon the ayat of the book upon the ayat of Allah سبحانه و تعالى for who is amongst the most famous reciters of the Holy Quran within history amongst the most famous reciters of the Holy Quran is a man by the name of Ibn-Muljim the killer of Ali ibn-Abqalib عليه الصلاة و السلام the man who struck Amir al-Mu'mineen on the 19th of this blessed month was known to be a memorizer of the Quran he would recite Quran day and night along with other خوارج amongst those who were amongst the memorizers of the Holy Quran is a man by the name of Shumr the Middle-Joshan the killer of Aba Abdullah al-Hussain on the day of Ashura was amongst those who recited the Quran he was amongst those who memorized the Quran but unfortunately their hearts were not cleansed their hearts had not reached that level of ألبن سليم but rather they had heart heartedness where you come forth and you see that they failed to be receptive to that which is present within the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى if we read the Holy Quran like any other book without understanding the instruction that comes from the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى we're no better than them we need to make sure that we take ourselves to the next level in terms of being amongst those who contemplate upon the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى who contemplate upon the verses of Allah سبحانه وتعالى صل على محمد وعالى when we want to go ahead and reflect upon the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى recite the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى within these days within these nights of the Holy month of Ramadan we need to understand that there are certain etiquettes in terms of recitation of the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and these etiquettes they are formed in terms of two different dimensions the first dimension are those physical etiquettes in terms of our dealing with the physical book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى of the Holy Quran and the second are what are known as those internal etiquettes that we have to do in terms of dealing with the Holy Quran in terms of the physical there are several before we recite the Holy Quran we should be in the state of Walul how many of us came to the mosque today in the state of Walul in preparation to recite the Holy Quran someone will come as forth in the states that I will recite the Holy Quran but I won't touch the verses I won't touch the letters so there's no need for me to be in the state of Walul yes that's true it's not logic for you to be in the state of Walul in terms of reciting the Holy Book that's not the point the point is to allow our hearts and the very basic level that they'll harm in performing the Walul and then coming to reciting the Holy Quran a second thing that we should try our best to do whatever we can and there's nothing wrong for us to not do it but we should try our best especially when we're in solitude to face the Qiblah when reciting the Holy Quran facing the Qiblah nothing wrong with that either someone might state there's no in terms of facing the Qiblah we need to do our best when we're facing the Qiblah to recognize that we are facing Allah SWT it's home we're facing Mecca we're facing the Holy Ka'bah and my recitation of the Holy Quran in that state has a little bit more potential for me to connect with him nothing wrong with that again number three that when we come forth to reciting the Holy Quran after performing the Walul after preparing ourselves facing the Qiblah take the Holy Quran and kiss the book when we're concluding our recitation kiss the Holy Quran when we're reciting the Holy Quran itself take your finger and touch the verses these are all blessings these are all barakah then we can attain from the book of Allah SWT there's a famous story narrated by شيخ الكليني هو شيخ الكليني شيخ الكليني شيخ الكليني is the compiler of كتاب الكافي one of the most important books of Ahadith that we have within the school of Ahlulbayt narrations of the Holy Prophet narrations of the Imams of the Ahlulbayt عليه مصرات وصرام and it's said that one day شيخ الكليني was not feeling well yet an intense eye pain he was reading his job is to read and to research and to write and this particular day this intense eye pain was extremely crucial in terms of hindering him from doing exactly what he wanted to do so he looks toward his son he says oh son go toward the doctor go toward the pharmacist and get me some medicine so I can remove this pain from my eyes it's giving me a headache and I'm unable to work I'm unable to read and research and so on and so forth and it's said a couple of moments later or excuse me this is narrated on behalf of شيخ الكليني the compiler of مفاته الجينات this most important book about أمال and دع that we have the son goes out toward the doctor to the pharmacist whatever after an hour or so later he returns back home and he sees his father sitting on the table reading and writing and researching and resuming his activities as normal he says dad I didn't even give you any medicine what happened he says I realize after you left that I don't mean any medicine for I have the book of شيخ الكليني the book of الكافي the أحاديت and the narrations بحر البيت he says what do you mean he says I went to my library and I picked up that book and I recited بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم or Allah and I asked you by the words of أهر البيت to cure this pain in my head to cure this pain in my eye and I took the book of الكافي and I rubbed it on my head and I saw a few moments later that I had been cured from my sickness how about the book of Allah when we recite the whole of the Quran the whole of the Quran it's not only a cure for our spiritual diseases but perhaps it's a cure for our physical diseases if we actually believe that it is that's the hard part to allow ourselves to reach this level our hearts and our souls to reach this level of elevation for us to have this for us to have this certainty that the whole of the Quran is a means for us to actually cure ourselves amongst those etiquettes of the recitation of the whole of the Quran as we were mentioning is to make sure that we touch the holy verses that we take blessing from it by kissing the holy book of Allah that we rub our fingers upon those verses amongst the etiquette amongst the etiquette of the recitation of the whole of the Quran is to make sure that we recite the whole of the Quran in a loud voice not in a loud voice that is too loud that it distracts others but not completely silent that we are only moving our mouth or we are only moving our lip without actually making a sound because that's not recitation the reward comes in terms of reciting the whole of the Quran and in fact we say that reward is in many different phases when it comes to the book of Allah there is a reward for looking at the verses of the Quran there is a reward for reciting the verses of the whole of the Quran there is a reward for hearing when you are driving to work coming back from work to the mosque during these holy month of Ramadan listen to the listen to the recording of the book of Allah this is all means and ways to build this link between us and Allah amongst the etiquette of the recitation of the whole of the Quran for instance is to make sure that when we are reciting we actually look at the words that we are actually looking at the verses not for memorization that every single day before you sleep you recite you recite three times and you say I've recited the Quran today my responsibility is done no reciting the Quran by looking at the verses these are a means again to make sure that we are fulfilling our that we are fulfilling our right to word the whole of the Quran these are all in terms of physical natural etiquettes that we can go ahead and perform that are not difficult on a day-to-day basis but the more important level in terms of fulfilling our etiquette toward the whole of the Quran is in terms of those internal or in terms of those spiritual etiquettes the first of those spiritual etiquettes is to make sure that we are taking lessons from the Quran at every single moment many of us during the holy month of Ramadan we do our very best to complete the Khatam we try to complete the Quran two times or three times that's very good there's nothing wrong with that it's very highly encouraged but for someone to make sure that they complete the Quran a billion times within this month without ever understanding exactly what you recited what's the point what makes us better than Ibn Majim what makes us better than Shem we need to make sure that we take our hearts and our souls toward the next level to make sure that we are understanding exactly what we are doing in terms of the recitation of the whole of the Quran on a second level and most importantly we need to be contemplating those verses that we are reciting الله سبحانه وتعالى states do you not contemplate the whole of Quran or upon your heart is there a lock again going back toward the heart contemplating the verses of الله سبحانه وتعالى have the potential to remove that disease have the potential to remove this lock that is on our heart how do we contemplate when we're reciting or when we're reading the story of Musa or Isa or Yusuf or Ya'ub or any of the prophets of Allah سبحانه وتعالى imagine for a moment that we are living within that particular historical period when we're reciting the verses of the punishment of Allah when Allah سبحانه وتعالى states that for the disbelievers he's going to give X punishment or Y punishment or Z punishment at that moment reflect in terms of what it would be to be living and receiving that torment from Allah سبحانه وتعالى and say Oh Allah save me from this and on the flip side when you're reciting the verses of reward and of bounty and of paradise say Oh Allah make me from amongst those who are receiving this these are all methods in terms of increasing our relationship and at the same time doing our best to contemplate upon those verses that we are reciting during this holy month from Allah in the same way that if we were to take Imam Al-Hussain عليه السلام and the story of Karbara and the story of Ashura and segregate it to only one historical period that took place on the 10th of Muharram 61 years after Hijra and see Hussain as a historical figure that we haven't done much in terms of understanding the message of Imam Al-Hussain عليه السلام that's what we need to do again is to make sure that we are living we are living through the verses that we are reciting that we are imagining ourselves to be in that situation and that is the way to maximize our potential to maximize our reward to maximize our relationship within this blessed month with the holy month of Ramallah and beginning tomorrow night Insha'Allah we will begin our discussion on one of the most important chapters within the Holy Qur'an what is known as Surat Nuh Surat Nuh is a chapter within the Holy Qur'an that allows us to extract numerous different lessons the first one of these lessons that we can understand Insha'Allah will focus on this particular aspect tomorrow night the first lesson that we need to understand from this particular chapter of the Holy Qur'an is in terms of how to remain faithful in the midst of all different types of struggles that we encounter within our life Prophet Nuh عليه السلام according to narrations according to the Holy Qur'an he preaches for 950 years 950 years but he doesn't get phased from only having at most 800 followers that's less than one follower per year the Prophet Nuh عليه السلام remains patient he remains focused in terms of constantly working to get closer toward preaching the message of Allah and number two we begin to reflect in terms of what it means to build our heart toward that level in terms of being receptive toward the ayat of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in terms of being responsive and receptive toward the prophets of Allah سبحانه وتعالى we take lessons from chapter Nuh from Surah Nuh within these next couple of nights I'll conclude with this final da'a and my dear brothers and sisters we need to understand and recognize one thing when it comes toward the Holy Qur'an and that is that we are unable to understand the depths of the book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى without a teacher and that teacher of ours is a Rasool الله محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم and the people of the house عليه وسلم that during this holy month many people they come to me for instance and they said I was reciting this verse and I was reciting this chapter and reciting this and that and all of us in it I've got it all figured out I understand the religion of Islam from beginning to end upon my basic recitation of the Holy Qur'an well if you recite the Holy Qur'an and completely segregated and completely marginalized from the holy household of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم then you have not understood then you have not understood the first thing of the Holy Qur'an because the Prophet he states in نتارك فيكم أتبق عليهم كتاب الله وإترتي أحلو بيتي that I have left behind for you two things the first of these is the Holy Qur'an and the second of these is the Ahlulbayt عليهم صلى الله عليه وسلم that each one of these they explain the other the Qur'an explains Ahlulbayt and Ahlulbayt عليهم صلى الله عليه وسلم they explain the Qur'an this we need to make sure that we utilize the narrations of Ahlulbayt عليهم الصلى الله عليه وسلم that we go back toward the teachings of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم for Allah سبحانه وتعالى states within the Holy Qur'an لا يام الصغوء إلا المتحروم that no one can touch the Holy Book except for those who are purified on one level that speaks about physical purification that no one should be touching the Qur'an if they haven't performed وضور if they haven't performed غسل but on a second level it is in terms of those who have reached the purification of the heart and who are those individuals الله سبحانه وتعالى states that those who are purified of course are the household of the Holy Prophet اهل البيت عليهم صلى الله عليه وسلم and that no one can touch the Qur'an meaning that no one can delve into the depths of the Book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى except for the Ahlulbayt عليهم صلى الله عليه وسلم unless we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى within these nights every single night we should make sure that we make this dua that we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى for the hastening of the reappearance of the Imam for he is the one who is the interpreter of the whole Qur'an within this age we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to hasten the reappearance of the Imam so he comes toward us and explains toward us and presents toward us the depths of the Holy Book of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that he grants us the tawfiq to become amongst the reciders to become amongst the readers to become amongst those who contemplate the Holy Qur'an والحمد لله رب العالمين وصل الله هم على سيدنا ونبينا محمد وعالها طيبي