 Insha'Allah in these nights instead of playing fortnight you will pray midnight insha'Allah. I will share with you five habits very quickly that many people struggle from and this is something that we all need to work on. One habit is constantly snacking on food brothers and sisters. This is a very big problem especially in the West and you see that it is leading millions and millions of people to so many diseases and problems. We're constantly snacking these days because food is always available, it's always within your reach wherever you go whatever you're doing there's food around you. There are snacks around you right? You're sitting and you're watching TV and you're eating that popcorn that chips and dip. You're with your friends hanging out, you're eating something. You're even reading a book, reading the paper and you're eating something. These days food is just everywhere and it's creating a problem for us, for our children, for many many adults. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has built in a sensor in your body to know what you need to eat. What's that sensor? What is that sensor that tells you now you need to eat? Hunger. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has built in hunger in your body when you feel hungry you eat. There was an old man who managed to live 100 years and he was very healthy. He was asked what is your secret? How did you live for so long so healthy? He said of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed me but I'll share with you a few tips that have kept me healthy. He said one very important tip, I would not eat until I really would feel hungry. Once I feel that hunger then I would eat and this is what the month of Ramadan teaches you. The month of Ramadan teaches you right that you eat at Iftar time when you're hungry. Brothers and sisters keep this habit after the month of Ramadan too. It's really helpful, it's really powerful. I know some of us on the day of Eid we go to Sobi's and every junk food that's out there we buy it we bring it to our homes and then every couple of hours we're eating and you ask this person Habibi are you hungry? No I'm really hungry then why are you eating? Oh because I can it's the day of Eid. Do we have a hadith that says on the day of Eid eat as much as you can? We need to change this habit snacking all the time eat only when you're hungry. There are many people who eat when they feel depressed when they're sad when they're going through stress when they're angry. No try to develop this habit that I'll only eat when I really feel that hunger when I feel hungry because then your body is telling you I need the food now. If you're not hungry just avoid eating. This leads to so many diseases to overweight problems and this is a growing problem in our communities around the world but especially in the west. Look at the rates of obesity. The month of Ramadan teaches you a valuable lesson in controlling this habit. Eat only when you're hungry. That's one habit. The second habit my dear brothers and sisters is watching too much TV. Many many people are glued to their TV screens. Studies show that people who watch TV more than two hours every day that leads to reduced physical activity and it leads to type two diabetes. We need to be very careful. How many hours am I watching TV? Some people you know they just go on there they sit on their couch. They sit before their TV screen and they really don't know what to watch. They're just channel surfing. Don't ever channel surf. See TV if there is really a good productive program that you would like to see but just to be a couch potato sit there and see what's out there in the world. You are destroying your time and believe me you're not going to gain anything. Once the last time you were sitting there for hours and just surfing the TV and you really saw something beneficial that changed your life. Doesn't happen that often right? So this is one habit that we need to control in the month of Ramadan because in the month of Ramadan we are given that willpower to change and let us change this habit. Number three. Now number three you might think this only impacts the youth and kids but it impacts adults more than kids and that is playing video games my dear brothers and sisters. Yes video games Fortnite GTA you know these days the whole world is going crazy about Fortnite right? People are addicted to it. Do you know that the average age of people who play video games regularly is what? 10? 12? 15? No. What do you think is it? 35? Yes that's the average age. We're talking about adults 62% of those between the ages of 18 to 29 they regularly play video games and 53% of those between the ages of 30 and 49 are constantly playing video games. 155 million Americans regularly play video games and every single year do you know how much money they spend on video games? 22 billion dollars not million billion 22 billion dollars can you just imagine? There are people who really are just addicted they're so addicted to these video games some people on average play 12 to 20 hours of week a week video games. Now I'm not saying that it's wrong to play it's okay every once in a while if you are using it moderately that's fine but to be addicted to it that has so many consequences on our lives. Many many people in our own communities even some fathers some husbands they're so irresponsible. Once the sister she came complaining she said my husband doesn't work I work and the reason is every single night he gets with his friends they get together and they play video games till the morning that's a salat al-layla and ibadah and tahajjud unfortunately. Many people are suffering from this use the month of Ramadan my dear brothers and sisters to break from this habit control it and if you're the type of person who if you play you're going to get addicted to playing don't play. Believe me playing these video games is not going to add anything to your life it's not going to make the quality of your life any better. Many people are suffering from this the month of Ramadan is the perfect time to break from this habit my dear brothers and sisters. So inshaAllah in these nights instead of playing fortnight you will pray midnight inshaAllah. The fourth habit that is a big problem for many people especially those who grow older is harboring old-time resentments grudges. You know there are people 10 years ago 15 years ago an incident happened with someone and until now they fume and rage over it they have that resentment and these grudges against those people these people are really just ruining their own lives. If you hold a grudge against someone is that going to make your life any better is it going to make that person who you hate any worse absolutely not you know as the saying goes it's like drinking the poison yourself and then hoping for someone else to die that's not going to happen you take the poison you're going to kill yourself there are many people who have resentment and grudges and that leads to many types of diseases by the way one of the causes of cancer is to have grudges against people can you imagine that having these constant resentments and grudges against people carrying that hate towards people that actually leads to cancer this is the month of forgiveness brothers and sisters allow your heart to forgive other people even if someone wronged you five years ago 10 years ago and you still haven't gotten over it this is the month to allow you to get over it this is the opportunity don't we seek the forgiveness of God we've all done bad things in our lives if we want Allah SWT to treat us like we treat other people then Allah should not forgive us for any of our sins but we expect Allah to let go oh Allah forgive me for all the sins that I've committed Allah SWT is telling you okay you also let go of your grudges and resentments and believe me you're the first person to benefit when you forgive others when you let those grudges go that night you will sleep better I guarantee you it's like something has been lifted from your chest a huge burden has been lifted from you so that is a fourth habit that we will work on and finally the fifth habit which is a very important one and that is excessive complaining brothers and sisters I know we all love to complain right when something is bad happening to you you're stressed out somebody said something to you you rush to someone to complain and it feels good let's face it when you complain it really does feel good temporarily it feels good just like a drug but in the long term do you know what it does studies have revealed people who have the habit of complaining initially they feel good about it because they're venting but then over time they prime and train their brain to focus on that which is negative by constantly complaining you're training your brain to be concerned with the negative side of your life and the brain will shift away from the positive in your life that's one of the negative effects of complaining that's why the religion of Islam teaches us try as much as you can not to complain yes if you are there to complain to seek advice that's fine you go to someone who's wise a fellow brother or sister and you tell them about some problems that you're having but not just to vent that's not your goal but the goal is to what to seek their advice to learn something from them to have them help you find yourself out of the situation that is fine but just to complain for the sake of complaining that actually ends up making you feel worse it tricks your brain into thinking that you've done something actually about it when in reality nothing has happened all you've done is just complain and then without even noticing it you will be focused on the dark side of your life on your problems whenever you're focused on your problems that impedes you from progressing from moving forward so one habit that we will work on inshallah in the month of ramadan is to stop the habit of complaining only complain to who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fa sabbrun jameel as prophet yaqub stated beautiful patience what is beautiful patience to complain only to the almighty god because when you complain to Allah Allah is the source of hope Allah is the source of everything positive in the universe when you complain to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you are actually resorting to your creator who can help you who can lift you from your situation and that generates hope in your hearts and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will help you so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala states in the holy Quran that he has prescribed fasting on us to achieve piety brothers and sisters and it's impossible to be truly pious without working on your akhla on your personality traits on your habits i tell you the biggest impediment that stops us from being pious pious is our bad habits if we can control bad habits in our lives especially in the month of ramadan then this will pave the way for us to be pious by