 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. At the end of the last session, I said that it is the revelation itself, the Qur'an itself, al-wahi, that constantly bids us to exercise reason. The Qur'an declares indeed the worst of creatures in God's sight are those who are deaf and dumb. Now, this is obviously not literal because it's simply not true. The verse is not referring to those who cannot hear or speak. The verse actually clarifies itself. Alladina la ya'atilum, those who do not reason. At times, the Qur'an reveals the rational basis for its commands, such as the command to prayer. Somebody might say, well, why do I need to pray? God doesn't need my prayers. And that's true. God doesn't need anything. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is totally sufficient unto Himself. He is al-Ghani al-hayyul qayyum. But the premise of the statement in this particular context is wrong. We don't pray because God needs our prayers. That's incorrect theology. That entire premise is false. We pray because He commands us to pray. Prayer is for our own benefit. We need prayer, not Him, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And the Farsi-speaking community, we often hear the excuse, you know, when we say, come to the prayer, they say, qalban paakast. My heart is pure. My heart is pure. You see, the prayer is the greatest form of zikr. And zikr is the polish of the heart. How can your heart be paak, be taahir, be clean, be purified? When you disobey Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala by disregarding its polishing, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says, innaman mushrikunin najis, indeed the mushrikin, the idolaters, they are spiritually filthy. Why? Because they disobey Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So imagine a mirror covered in a layer of dirt. You look into the mirror and try to convince me that the mirror is totally clean, even though your reflection is not even visible. If the mirror was clean and polished, you would see an accurate reflection of your face. In a similar way, if your heart was paak, was clean, as a theomorphic creature, we would see an accurate reflection of Allah's commandments in your actions. So again, to answer the question, why do we pray? Allah commands us to pray. We say, simi'ana wa g'ana, okay? And prayer actually benefits us in both abodes. Concerning this world, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says, innas salata tanha al-fahshai wal-munqar. Indeed prayer prevents indecency and wrong action. If you have to pray five times a day at different times, while in a state of wudu, committing fahsh'a in munqar become very difficult. What is fahsh'a? Fahsh'a usually refers to something that is specifically sexual in nature, a sexual sin, some sort of sexual immorality. Munqar is a general act of disobedience. Committing these two things, when you have to pray five times a day at different times, in a state of wudu becomes very difficult. So the prayer literally functions to restrict your ability to sin. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, ad-dunya sijnul mu'min. The dunya is a prison for the believer. So we are not meant to be too comfortable in this world. The Buddha, who could have been a prophet, he said that the first noble truth of existence was that the world was in a state of suffering, right? And the Pali word is duqqa, which means to be dislocated or disjointed. I mean, think about a dislocated shoulder, right? A Muslim should feel awkwardly and painfully out of place in this world. But also remember that Allah SWT does not give us more than we can handle. La yuqallifu allahu nafsan illa wa sa'aha. Even a wali of God, a saint of Allah SWT, especially a saint whose desires have completely aligned with the Qur'an and Sunnah is not comfortable in this world, right? The Prophet SAW said, La yuqallifu allahu nafsan illa wa sa'aha. None of you truly believe until his desires, his caprice, his wants and desires are in perfect accordance with what I have brought, the Qur'an and Sunnah. Imagine a saint of God whose joy is to pray and fast, whose joy is to restrict his appetites, his joy is to read and study the Qur'an and give charity. Why is such a person uncomfortable in the dunya? It's because he longs to be with his Lord in the Akhira. He longs to be with the Prophet SAW in Jannah. That's called shawq, longing for one's beloved due to Firaq, due to separation. Think about a Sayyidina Bilal who was on his deathbed and his wife was screaming, Wa Karaba O disaster! And he said, La Karaba Ghadan alaqaa ahibba Muhammadan wahizba. There's no disaster. Tomorrow I'm going to meet the beloved ones, the Prophet SAW and his fellowship. The rationale behind the prohibition of adultery is similarly given in the Qur'an. The Qur'an says, Walad taqrabu zina. And notice here, the Qur'an did not say, Walad tazinu. The Qur'an did not simply say, Don't commit adultery. It said, Do not even draw near to adultery. Don't even put yourself in a position where that could even be possible. Inna hu kana fahishatan wa sa'a sabila. It is indecency and an evil path. Once you go down that path, things only get worse and worse. So we can make a cogent, rational argument with supporting evidence that people who engage in illicit sexual relations destroy their lives. They destroy the lives of their children. It leads to divorce, broken homes, mental illness, disease, even violence. Now, check this out. When I read this, it staggered me. I couldn't believe it. One in five Americans have an STD, a sexually transmitted disease. One in five, according to the CDC, that's 68 million people. In an Islamic context, it is impossible for a married couple to contract an STD as long as they did not fornicate before their marriage, nor commit adultery during their marriage. It is impossible. According to the American Psychological Association, up to 40% of marriages end up in divorce due to infidelity, due to zinna. I mean, think about the mental toll. Think about the children. Think about the child who says to himself that his father's needs, personal needs were more important than his own family. Allah SWT told us about this evil, and He reasons with us, wa sa'a sabilah. What an affordable way of living your life. We can collect data and prove that. And this is whether it's the actual act of zinna or the zinna of the eyes, right? There's a reason why. Again, there's a reason why. Allah SWT tells us in the Quran, you know, tell the believing men and women to lower their glances. Isa, alaihi salam, according to the Gospel of Matthew, he said, of course, this is according to a Christian source. If your eye sins, pluck it out, he says. It is better for part of you to enter hell than the whole of you. Of course, most Christians, they take this to be majaz. This is figurative, right? So it's supposed to communicate the gravity of the sin. But that's how it starts, the wandering eye. He says, according to Matthew, you have heard it said, don't commit adultery. But I say unto you, a man who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart, right? Sayyidina Ali, he reported a hadith, it's related by Imam Ahmad. Sayyidina Ali narrates it, where he said, the Prophet SAW said to him, La tutbi'a nathara nathara. Right? Don't follow a glance with another glance. Fa inna al-uula lak, for the first glance is for you, right? Wa laisad laka al-akhira. But the second glance is against you. So this is more difficult for men than it is for women. Men are very visually oriented. This is why women pray behind the men in prayer. Sometimes this is difficult for women to understand, which is understandable because they are not men. They don't know what it feels like to be men and vice versa. Men and women are different. You ever heard of men are from Mars, women are from Venus? Well, that's true. But they are complementary opposites. They are the yin, like the yin and the yang. They are not rivals or antagonists, like what we see today in our postmodern neoliberal and neo-Marxist culture. Everything's about power dynamics and identity groups struggling for power. But a woman genuflecting in front of a man will distract a man, I guarantee you. Confucius said in Book 9, Chapter 18 of the Lun Yu, that's the Anilex, his magnum opus. He said this again in Book 15, Chapter 13, which means that he would say this quite often. He said, I have yet to meet a man who is as fond of virtue as he is of the beauty in women. Even in the Buddha, there's a story. The Buddha is sitting under the bow tree, the Buddha tree, the tree of enlightenment. And Kama, who is the devil in Buddhist tradition, he comes and he parades these beautiful women in front of him. Now, Buddhist scholars don't believe that this is literal, but they say that this was a modality of his own mind, that he's mastering his khawatir nafsani, his lustful extraneous thoughts. The inability of a man to control his eyes could lead to the destruction of the lives of multiple people. Allah SWT warned us about this in the Quran, and we want to reason with people about these things. Now the rationale behind fasting is also given in the Quran, لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ, in order for you to attain taqwa, and taqwa is often translated as piety or fear of God, or God consciousness, and these certainly have something to do with taqwa, but linguistically, the word taqwa is related to weqaya, meaning protection or prevention. We will continue in our reflections in the next session, inshallah, until then, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakam.