 The month of Ramadan. The linguistic meaning of Ramadan gives us great insight into the nature of the benefits of Ramadan. So Ramadan is from Ramadan. Ramadan is the first rain of the rainy season. So it's the rain that clears off the dust. And it's the rain that prepares the earth to absorb the rain that will come subsequently. And so Ramadan cleans the dust of sin off of us. And it prepares us for the benefits of our worship that will come after it. Because we will re-engage, we'll return to our normal schedules from a foundation different than what we entered Ramadan with. Ramadan for 11 months. We've been feeding our carnal appetites. For 11 months, we've been slack in our Qur'an, most of us. For 11 months, we've been negligent in our Qiyamil lail. And then we come in Ramadan and it cleans all of that dust off of us. And now when we re-enter and return to our normal schedules, we'll cleanse, then we are prepared to receive the benefit of our worship. And if we maintain what we established in Ramadan, we maintain the habits of Qiyamil lail that we established through the Ta'rawi prayer. We maintain the commitment to the Qur'an that we established during the month of Ramadan, then we will find tremendous, tremendous benefit. The second meaning of Ramadan is from Ramadan Yarmidu, which means the burning heat of stones that have baked in the sun. Now if those stones are, for example, of darker color and they absorb the sun, we won't be able to stand on them. When we go to Umrah during the hot season, we can barely stand on the white marble of the Ka'bah. It's burning our feet. So imagine out in the desert, brown stones that are more absorbent than the reflective stones at the Ka'bah. So they're burning hot. And from this meaning, the exertion of Ramadan, the losing sleep in Ramadan, standing in prayer, our feet aching, dealing with what we deal with during the fast, it burns our sins off of us, just as that burning heat burns anything that comes into contact with that stone. You can even fry eggs on the desert stones during some seasons. It's so hot. And so Ramadan embodies this contradiction between the coolness and the refreshment of the rain and the heat of the stones in the desert sun. So the heat is found in the fasting and the heat is found in standing an hour, two hours at night in prayer. The heat is found in struggling to keep our eyes open so we can read one more page from the Quran. That's the heat, but the coolness is found when we accomplish it. When we finish our Juz for the day, then we feel a sense of relief and a sense of refreshment knowing what we've accomplished. When we finish Ta'rawi and it's late and we're sleepy and our feet are hurting, there's a sense of tremendous relief and the coolness that comes with accomplishing something that we might have to struggle with. So these are two of the seemingly contradictory blessings of Ramadan, but in reality both are mutually reinforcing. And this is what Allah or the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, talks about when he said, The fasting person has two joys, the joy when they break their fast. This is the coolness, the fast was the heat and breaking the fast was the coolness and literally the cool drop of water or drink of water and we're refreshed and we're restored and we're invigorated just as in the course of our year when we finish Ramadan, we're restored and we're refreshed and we're reinvigorated and we're prepared to forge on through the rest of the year. The month of Ramadan during which the Quran was revealed. So we know the Quran was revealed in parts to the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, of the course of 23 years. But it was revealed, it's a Jumlatan and one instant from the Laah al-Mafuf, the preserved tablet where it has been inscribed by Allah and preserved tablet. No one can alter anything in it. So the Quran could not be altered by the Shayateen who might have ascended and tried to alter it. It was in the Laah al-Mafuf and then it was revealed to the lower heavens on the night of power during Ramadan. And so this is the meaning of Ramadan. So someone might be confused. I thought it was revealed over the course of 23 years. It was from the lower heavens by the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But it was revealed in a single unit, in a single instant from the Laah al-Mafuf, the preserved tablet to the lower heavens on the night of power during the month of Ramadan. One of the meanings of guidance here is that it presents us a belief system and a worldview. So the Quran and the message of the Quran presents a worldview. And if we were to contrast that with the dominant prevailing worldview, the prevailing dominant worldview is materialism. And many Muslims have been sucked into the sewer of materialism unwittingly. And we say the sewer because it reduces us to our lowest element, the material side of us. The material side of us is that side we share with everything else. There is no distinction for the human being and our material nature. There is no distinction. If anything, it lowers us. Why? Because physically, in our material sense, the average monkey is stronger than us. An orangutan, a chimpanzee, a gorilla, of course. They're all stronger than us. There's no distinction, a bear, a horse. Many dogs are faster than us. There's no physical distinction in our physical nature. Stone is harder than us. You take the human hand and you hit a stone, you'll break your knuckles if you hit it hard enough because the stone is stronger than our physical stuff. There's no distinction in our physical stuff and materialism reduces us to our physical nature. Our distinction comes in our spiritual essence. And the message of the Quran, the worldview presented by the Quran, is spiritualism. It talks about the akhirah, that which you cannot physically touch, feel, smell, hear, right now. It talks about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and says, laizeh ke mithli hishayt. There's nothing in this physical realm that compares with Allah. It talks about the angels, creatures created from light. It talks about the jinn, creatures created from fire. It talks about the day when we were all extracted from the loins of Adam. And our Lord asked us rhetorically, Am I not your Lord? This happened before we came into physical existence. So our souls were addressed. This is the worldview called ubelah. And we all responded, certainly. So no one could say that we were not created to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But the world intervenes, the material intervenes on the spirit. And the challenge for the believer is to remove the dross of the physical world from his or her heart, from his or her soul, and to elevate his or her nefs to the degrees of spiritual perfection by removing the material obstacles in his or her path. That's the worldview of the Qur'an, and then law, then the explication of that guidance. And a legal system that contains rulings, ahkam, the wajib, the mandub, the sunnah, the mubah, the makrooh, the haram, the obligatory, the highly encouraged, the permissible, the disliked, or discouraged, the forbidden. It has rulings. It has principles to anchor those rulings. It has objectives, maqasidah shari'ah. Those rulings are designed to do what? The maqasidah tell us they're designed to preserve religion. And to preserve religion, shirk and kufra, idolatry, has been forbidden. To preserve life, hifzul hayyat. To preserve life, murder has been forbidden. To preserve the intellect, hifzul akil. To preserve the intellect, drugs and alcohols have been forbidden. To preserve the family, hifzul nasal. To preserve the family, homosexuality, fornication, incest have been forbidden. Hifzul al-al-mal. Preserving private property, the preservation of private property, interest, usury, monopoly, insider trading have all been forbidden. And if you look at our contemporary problems, all of them are rooted in not having a system that respects these objectives. So this is bayinati min al-huda' and explicating that guidance. And then we could talk about the legal maxims, adorayuzal, harm is to be removed. The early scholars during the 18th century, for example, when cigarettes were introduced into the Muslim world, most of them, not all, one, Jaffer Kettani said it's haram. And he wrote a book about it in the 19th century. But most of them said it's disliked. It's makru. It has a foul odor like garlic or onions. So when you're around people, you offend them. You offend the angels accompanying you. The angels around us, you blow smoke in their face. That's one reason Jaffer Kettani said it's haram. Because it's disrespect to the angels accompanying you. In any case, what most scholars says makru. It makes your teeth dirty. And oral hygiene is one of the great prophetic teachings. Arba min sunin al-mursaleen, as-siwak, good oral hygiene. But in the 20th century, when they found out smoking leads to lung cancer and throat cancer and emphysema and things that are deadly, then they said the reputable scholar said it's haram. Why? Adorayuzal, harm is to be removed. And so this is bayinati min al-hudat. There's an intricate system of law that explicates that guidance and translates that worldview and that belief system into practical steps for us to live our daily lives. Wal furqad. And a criterion for distinguishing between right and wrong. In other words, a system of ethics, an ethical system, a moral system. So we know right from wrong. We know right behavior from wrong behavior. We know upright sound character from vile and unacceptable character. So this is the guidance that our Lord has given us. And so this system, one of its principles is facilitating ease. Difficulty calls, invites for facilitating ease. Those who are old, those who are traveling and dealing with the difficulties of travel in those days. We have little difficulty traveling in our days. We go from air conditioned houses, jump into the air conditioned car, go to the air conditioned airport, get into the air conditioned plane, go to another air conditioned airport, go to another air conditioned car and go to another air conditioned house. Unless you come to the lighthouse mosque, you have a fan. But the difficulty of travel is largely removed. But if there is difficulty, there's ease. One can leave the fasting. One who is sick doesn't have to force himself or herself to fast despite the burden and difficulty of the illness. They can make it up later. They can make it up. This is from the ease and the wisdom of our law and of our Islam. And then Allah, he says, in order that you would complete the appointed days of fasting, either in the month of you were traveling or you were ill or women on her monthly cycle, complete the days later, in the month or later. So the number, the number of days because you might not get it during the month. So Allah didn't say to complete the month, to complete the number and not necessarily the month. And so we have to complete the month. Brothers and sisters fast vigorously throughout the month. Whoever fasts Ramadan with sincerity anticipating a reward, then their prior and future sins will be forgiven. This referring to their lesser sins. The month, mensama Ramadan, menqama Ramadan, whoever stands for worship during the nights in Ramadan. So not just the first week when we're excited and we have Ramadan fever and we're ready to go. Then Ramadan fever wears off and we go one night and skip a night. And then after the second week, we don't go any nights, we're counting down for Eid. No, menqama Ramadan, iman and muhtisaban, whoever gufra laahu maa taqadda min min dabbin. Whoever stands for worship during the nights of Ramadan, the entire month, then their prior sins will be forgiven. No, no, maa taqadda min dabbin, wa maa taqadda, haada layla tul qadr. Menqama layla tul qadri, iman and muhtisaban, gufra laahu maa taqadda min min dabbin, wa maa taqar. So I mistranslated the first one. Their previous sins will be forgiven. This is the mercy, but we have to complete it. Wa li tu kabbiru allaha ala ma hadhaakum. And some people say these three phrases refer to fasting the month of Ramadan. Wa li tuqimilu iddata. And then the Eid al-Thitr, because we open it with taqbir. We see the hilal and we start the taqbirat. Wa li tu kabbiru allaha ala ma hadhaakum. Wa laa allakum tashkurum. And the shukr is referring to the six days of Shawwal. As shukr min jinsin ni'ma. This thankfulness we give is categorical to the blessing we receive. We receive the great blessing of Ramadan. So our shukr is to now fast six days. To continue fasting after Eid as an expression of our thanks. So these blessings the Prophet received, his shukr was to pass these blessings on to others. So we've been blessed with this fast. But some say li tu kabbiru allaha ala ma hadhaakum. To thank Allah, to glorify and extol the greatness of Allah for this great, great blessing of guidance that he's given us in the Qur'an. For this great, great blessing of fasting he's given us. This opportunity to put so much immeasurable good in our scales. The reward of fasting has no numerical limits. Because the good deeds are multiplied ten times over, seven hundred times over. Many times over and beyond that. And Allah says, except fasting. And the ulamat they say fasting and get exempted from the deeds that are multiplied. There's no multiplied numerical limit to fasting. Why? Because it's a manifestation of patience. And what is the reward of patience? The patient ones are given their reward with no numerical limits. And so for this great, great blessing Allah has given us, we extol his greatness. Allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar kabirah. Wa la alakum tashkurum. In order that you may give thanks. In order that you may give thanks. May we that we give thanks to Allah for this blessing. Allah has given us an opportunity in one Ramadan to put more good in our scales than we might have deposited therein over the course of our life. Allah has given us an action, fasting, that the reward no one can take. For in the huli, fasting is mine. All of the deeds are in atonement. So raddum ma zalim. The people we are oppressed, they will take from our good deeds and take from our good deeds yawm al qiyamah. But they can't take the reward of our fast. Why? Because it isn't ours. Wa qalallahu azzu wa jayal illa al-siyyama, illa al-soma. Wa la alakum tashkurum. Absolutely. Because as we said, the spiritual worldview, our existence in this material world are to engage in those acts which will for which we've been promised paradise and salvation. For which we've been promised paradise and salvation. This is what worldly life is all about. It's not eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow you may die. It's eat, drink, and thank Allah for your food and your drink, because tomorrow you will die. And that's not the end of your affair. As the person who didn't take advantage of this life. For the one given his book of these in his left hand. He says, whoa unto me, why not given my book? He knows what's in there. He knows the dirt he's done. He knows of his transgressions. He knows what his reckoning will be. She knows what her reckoning will be. So we have an opportunity to get the book in our right hand. So we don't want that to be us. My wealth of is no benefit. You work night and day. From like the fast of Ramadan, from the crack of dawn to sunset pursuing wealth. Either going to work, commuting to work, going to night school after work. From the crack of dawn to sunset. No time for Allah. And then what does that wealth benefit? And then work to become the man, the woman. Top dog, alpha dog, everyone. He's the man, she's the woman. All in my world, his authority status is gone. And then the angels be ordered, seize him and strangle him. And then make him or her fuel for the hellfire. Then wrap them up in a chain that's seven cubits long to drag behind them in the hellfire with the burning heat of the chains, multiplying the burning heat of hell and dragging that burden through hell. Who wants that? I'll tell you who wants it. The ones who say this material world is all we have. The ones who say if I can't see Allah and taste Allah and smell Allah and hear Allah, Allah doesn't exist. That's who wants it. May Allah give us Taufiq. May Allah bless us to give thanks to him not only for the blessings of the reward of Ramadan but for reconnecting us with our humanity, by blessing us to suppress those carnal physical lust and appetite so that our spiritual essence and being can come to the fore and we can connect with it and we can appreciate it and we can know that it's real and we can know that it's more real than this world where everything perishes. You know anything that lasts forever? Did your nice new car last forever? Forever? When you got your Cadillac bike in 1974, the big El Dorado with the diamond in the back, the sunroof top and you were digging the scene with your gangsta lean and then five years later that LD was in the junkyard. This is the reality of the world no matter how pretty, how enticing, how alluring, it's going to fade. But your Lord will remain. Your Lord will remain. Brothers and sisters pursue that which lasts and not that which perishes and thank Allah for the blessing of Ramadan that reinforces for us the reality of that which lasts and the truly important things in our lives. Alhamdulillah Allah has blessed us. Brothers and sisters don't complain. Allah has blessed us. Don't wish for another time. Thank Allah for this time. Thank Allah for this time. All the times are bad. The times are good because this is the time that Allah has given us to do good for our souls. This is the time Allah has given us and He's given us safety and security. We sit here in safety and security. Thank Allah for safety. Thank Allah for security. Thank Allah no one is sitting here in fear. Thank Allah because those blessings can be taken away and the thing that leads to the eradication of blessings is not thanking Allah for them. And your Lord proclaimed if you give thanks for my blessings I will increase you on those blessings and if you reject those blessings you should know that my punishment is severe. In order that you will give thanks. So may Allah bless us with thankful hearts. We ask you for thankful hearts and we ask you for a reminder of mindful tongues. Tongues that are occupied with your remembrance and we ask you for bodies that are patient in the face of the hardships and tribulations bodies encounter during this world.