 We, insha'Allah, this time of the week, will find ourselves in the midst of the month of Ramadan. We are in the final days of Sha'aban and we ask Allah, as I said at the very outset, to afford us the opportunity to avail ourselves of all the blessings that the month of Ramadan has in store and they are countless and innumerable blessings that we find available to us by the fadl of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this month or in the upcoming month. Fadl Ramadan, brothers and sisters, is always an opportunity for us to reflect on and to reflect upon where we are as individuals and as a community. It is a barometer. It is a gauge by which we measure our health. And by health I mean our spiritual health, our connection to Allah. And also, one cannot underscore or under emphasize the fact that the month of Ramadan is a physical endeavor. The last statement in the month of Ramadan is a physical endeavor. So it requires physical, mental and spiritual. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless all components and all facets of that existence of ours in this month of Ramadan. So the month of Ramadan is this barometer, this gauge, this opportunity for us to measure where we are and where we can with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our relationship to Him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an, Ya'i wa ladina amanu kutib aalaykum us-siyam kama kutib aalilladina min qablikum la'allakum tatafoon. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us, O you who believe, the instructs us, O people of faith, fasting has been prescribed to you and upon you. It's been made mandatory to you. As it was made mandatory and a compulsory act of devotion to those before you, la'allakum tatafoon. And then Allah gives the reason in purpose for that fast, for that fasting, for that exercise, that spiritual exercise. And that is to attain taqwa, God consciousness. It's interesting that the word taqwa, in fact, literally from the word waqaya, means to prevent or to protect ourselves. And that is what fasting is. It is a form of protection, of prevention, abstinence. Because fasting is an abstention, a prevention that we willfully take upon ourselves. We willfully take upon ourselves the task of giving up food and water during the daylight, during the daytime, hours. Out of devotion to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone, insha'Allah, out of devotion to Him alone. La'allakum tatafoon. So that we may attain God consciousness, taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Consciousness in existence that is predicated, that is built upon reliance and a sense of consciousness of our duties and our responsibilities. And yes, our relationship to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. God is not in need of our fast, of our devotion of any kind. We are in need of the blessings and the follow and the grace from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that awaits us for fasting in the month of Ramadan. Now what's interesting is that this particular verse that we recited, one that we often do in this month of Ramadan or as we discuss Ramadan, does not mention shahru Ramadan. It does not mention the month of Ramadan. It simply says that fasting has been prescribed to you. And that is because this verse is actually revealed prior to the requirement to fast in the month of Ramadan. It speaks to the devotional act of fasting itself that fasting has been made an obligation upon us. And this is why the early community fasted on other days outside of Ramadan. This is again before revelation came specifically ordaining or requiring the fasting in the month of Ramadan. And so fasting is a devotional act that one can engage in throughout the year. Outside of a few, basically the yidain, the two eons, you can fast whenever you want. And it is in fact an incorrigible devotional act to fast as much as possible. Three days out of the month, the three white days, the bright days as we say. Mondays and Thursdays. And others throughout the year where we are afforded or we are encouraged the opportunity to fast. And so fasting is a devotional act in the month of Ramadan certainly, but it is also something that we can engage in outside of the month of Ramadan. What is interesting is that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions shahru Ramadan, the month of Ramadan by name, which he does so in the preceding verse after this verse of fasting. He says shahru Ramadan aladhi uzzila bihir Quran. That the month of Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed. It began, the process of revelation began to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in the month of Ramadan. On light of the Qadr. It is also in the month of Ramadan that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the Quran from the sacred abode to the lower heavens. This also occurred on light of the Qadr. And so when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the month of Ramadan by name, he inextricably ties it and connects it. Not so much or not explicitly to the devotional act of fasting, but rather the relationship with Allah's book. Without meaning is a devotional act that we should engage in profusely throughout the month of Ramadan, as much as possible. And it was the tradition of earlier of the pious to recite as much of the Quran as possible to complete as much completions or khatams of the Quran in the month of Ramadan as a devotional act. And yes, we do so in our tarawih prayers, in our nightly vigil prayers. And we hope and we pray that we are able to enjoy them safely in a communal setting again in this month of Ramadan. I'm sure MCC has guidelines around that for the coming, but we engage in that recitation of the Quran in that act of worship. But even beyond that, and even if we are not able to complete the khatam of the Quran as a community in the tarawih prayers, we should devote our time and our energies to reciting and to connecting with the Book of Allah as much as possible. In fact, when we talk about traditions of yesterday, it was a traditional act for madrasahs and universities and institutions of learning to complete or to conclude or to leave off an academic study of anything else except to devote time and energy to the tilawah of the Quran, to the recitation of the Quran. And so this is the month of the Quran. The month of Ramadan is the month of the Quran. And it is a month in which we should engage as much as we are able and capable with a relationship and a connection to the Quran. Beyond the connection with the Quran, the recitation of it in the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan, of course, also teaches us very valuable lessons we reflect upon. And these lessons, brothers and sisters, are akin to fasting, or similar to what I mentioned about fasting, which is that, yes, we fast the month of Ramadan, but it is something that we can do outside of the month of Ramadan as well. These lessons that we have learned and developed in the month of Ramadan are those that we should carry outside and beyond the month of Ramadan. The Ramadan becomes that boot camp, that crucible of time, that intense period where we connect with or we learn these lessons not to forget them when the first of Shahwad begins, but rather to continue them throughout the years. And this is why in the month of Shahwad, for example, the month that precedes Ramadan, we are encouraged to fast the six days of fasting in Shahwad. As a reminder that the devotional aspects or the spiritual endeavors that we engaged in in the month of Ramadan are not to be forgotten when that month leaves us, but rather we take those lessons and those practices with us throughout the year. And so yes, Ramadan is that gauge, that measurement every year after year where we can assess ourselves and recalibrate accordingly. But it is also a period of time in which we can learn lessons that we should carry throughout our lives, throughout the year, beyond the month of Ramadan. First and foremost of these lessons that we learn in this month is the value or the profound nature of delayed reward or delayed gratification. We live in an age of instant gratification and with the help of technology that instant has become even more instant gratification or the ability to instantly gratify ourselves with the press of a button or with whatever technology tool that you have, right? That's what technology has afforded us. This age of instantly being able to be satiated, satisfied, engaged, gratiated instantly with the press of a button at our fingertips always. But what we learn in Ramadan is that true happiness, true blessing is in depriving ourselves of instantly being gratified and rather delayed response or delayed gratification or satisfaction or being instant rather than being instantly gratified or satiated. That is what the month of Ramadan teaches us, the value of prolonging that reward or that satisfaction that comes because we fast throughout the day waiting for our thought, waiting for that moment where we break our fast with a morsel of food or a drink of liquid or water or what have you or a date, that gratification comes after prolonged abstinence, a waiting period. Sisters, he's a profound lesson outside of Ramadan that to work and to work hard and to strive and to struggle and to toil with the idea that the reward that we are trying to achieve may elude us, may not come instantly, but rather we have to wait for that reward. We have to toil and we have to struggle for that gratification. That's what Ramadan teaches us. Finally, the month of Ramadan is a profound analogy or lesson that we learn about the nature of life, the nature of this life especially. The nature of our daily and worldly existence. It is a beautiful analogy to life as a whole, the month of Ramadan. And what I mean by that is that struggle, perseverance, that delay of gratification that I spoke of earlier is something that is limited by time. It is in limited portions. We don't live a life of constant struggle and toil. There are moments of happiness and reward. And if we live the life where we have to constantly struggle, constantly toil, if fasting was something that we did in perpetuity, perpetually, or every day, or for long periods of time beyond just the time between the day rise and the sunset, if it was something that we had to do for longer periods of time, or for an entire month where we don't eat or drink, that would be a possibility. But the fact is that toil, that struggle, it is limited and that reward and happiness and satisfaction will eventually come to us. That is what life should be teaching us. And even if we see all of worldly existence as a struggle, as a toil, we know as believers that the ultimate reward, that the ultimate satisfaction, that the ultimate reward of our struggle and our toil in this world is the life of the hereafter, is the life in the hereafter. That even if, for those souls who may not achieve any model of happiness in this life, and that's in front of people, we have so much to be happy and grateful for. But even if we live a life of challenge and struggle, that as long as we are devoted and connected to Allah, that our reward will lie in the life hereafter. That toil and struggle is not something that we are meant to do in perpetuity forever. That reward and satisfaction and happiness and satiation, being able to satisfy what we need, comes to us eventually. And that is our belief in the life hereafter, is that all rights, all wrongs will be made right in the life hereafter, even if they are not done so in this life. And so the month of Ramadan, and the festival of Eid that comes after it, that concludes it, is that valuable analogy and lesson of life itself. Is that eventually happiness and reward awaits us if we strive, if we struggle, if we work hard. Yes, if we deprive ourselves of things that we want or desire, because eventually happiness will not forever elude us. But rather it is something that we will attain either in this life or in the life hereafter. I pray that Allah SWT gives us all the ability to afford ourselves and avail ourselves of all of the blessings in this month of Ramadan. I pray that Allah SWT finds us better at the end of Ramadan than at the beginning. And we pray that Allah SWT continues to keep us safe and healthy throughout this month. Peace be upon you. I pray that Allah SWT finds us better at the end of Ramadan than at the beginning. And at the end of Ramadan, we pray that Allah SWT finds us better at the end of Ramadan than at the beginning. Peace be upon you.