 The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa hara ala wa sallam in a hadith reported by Imam al-Hakim in his mustadrak. He said, If I was the first night of Ramadan, I would be the first night of Ramadan. When the first night of Ramadan comes, the demonic forces and the rebellious jinn, they are restrained. They are placed in shackles. Wa tuqlaqoo abwaabu nal and all the gates of hell are shut. Wa lam yuftaah minhabab and not a single gate is left open. Wa tuftaahoo abwaabu jiran and the gates of heaven are flung open. Wa lam yuflaq minhabab and not a single gate is closed. Wa nadaa munadin ya baghiyal khayr aqbil and then an angel calls out, an angel calls out saying, O seeker of good, approach. Wa ya baghiyashar aqsir and O seeker of evil, shrink back. Wa lilahi uftaqaa'u minhabab and then God, He sets free who He has assigned number of people who will set free from the hellfire when that first night begins of Ramadan. We all know that the month is very close and we've heard this hadith or at least an adoration of this report before and every single year as we gather as the month of Ramadan approaches. There are many benefits that come from a reflection on this particular hadith first and foremost is that this hadith is reinforcing the fact that there is a heaven and there's a hell. It reinforces the fact that there are beings that exist beyond our ability to see with our eyes. We call them angels, we call them jinn, demonic forces, angelic forces. It teaches us that certain times as well of the year, more blessed than other times, it reminds us of God's forgiveness and the opportunities afforded us constantly and especially in this blessed month for us to reform our behavior. But it also reminds us of the reality of God's punishment when we choose not to reform our behavior. The month of Ramadan is called, among other things, of many things, Shahr-u-Sabah, the month of patience, the month of temperance, the month of restraint. And the fast of Ramadan is not only an opportunity or a time for us to commemorate and to celebrate the revelation of the Quran, the revelation of the book of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. But the month of Ramadan, also, it reinforces the importance of fasting as a tool of spiritual formation. In the Quran, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, when he speaks of fasting, he says, كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْصِيَامِ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ Fasting has been ordained for you as it was ordained for those who came before you. The verse doesn't say the fast of Ramadan was ordained for you in the way that it was ordained for others before you, but fasting itself, during Ramadan or outside of Ramadan, that fasting has been ordained for humanity. Every tradition, every dispensation revealed by Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, fasting has been a part of it. And it is said that fasting is one half of patience. Fasting is one half of subhanu. And patience is one half of iman, is one half of faith. The stomach itself, according to Imam Abu Hamla Ghazadi, and so many other ethicists, is the root or the spring source of all devices. And he tries to demonstrate this, not necessarily, he tries to, he actually does, he demonstrates this. And he shows us this, you know what? When we reflect upon the stomach, and once the stomach is full, that the stomach agitates sexual desire. And then the human being seeks to gratify not only his appetite for food and drink, but also for intercourse. And then once a person is gratified, the person wants to experience that gratification again. And so they seek out different avenues to access that experience once again. So they seek wealth, they seek property. And they learn that if I have wealth and actually get the things that I want, and then once they have wealth, they say, okay, is there an easier way for me to achieve wealth, or achieve access to these sources or these sources of gratification? So they discover that fame, fortune, status is an easy way to gain property and gain wealth, and you can get those fundamental things. But once you get there, what happens is that there are always those around you who see you, people envy you, people they want what you desire. And when they want for you, what you desire, maybe they'll pray that God takes it away from you, even if they don't get it themselves. Or maybe they say, you know what, I'm gonna take it from you. So in other words, all this from the stomach. We are people, we are species, especially in these times that we eat too much and we drink too much, we talk too much, we consume too much, we waste too much. And so Ramadan, when we think of fasting, we have to think about these other benefits as well that the benefit or the blessing of hunger itself, we voluntarily make ourselves hungry in these days, as we know. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He has given the human being three fundamental powers, or at least this is the way our ethicists, they speak about it. We have the rational, intellectual powers. We've given us the power of appetite and the, we call it Qubat Al Ghadabiyah, irasability, that these things are the sources for our behavior. They are where, from which we act from those fundamental sources. And one of the great scholars of Islamic history, although controversial among many, Ibn Arabi, Mahyedin Ibn Arabi, he said that there are fundamental, fundamentally four types of knowledge that the human being acquires through virtue, that ultimately through the practice of virtue becoming a better person, because this is really what fasting as a tool of spiritual formation, it does, it helps you become a better person. It's not only about you doing good things, it is about you wanting to do good things, even when you don't have the opportunity to do so. This is where we want to be. We don't only want to say, okay, well somebody asked me for five bucks, I gave him $5. Alhamdulillah, I feel good about myself. And that person thinks I'm a generous person, but I may have simply done it for some ulterior motive. I may have done it begrudgingly, right? I really didn't want to, but I gave it anyway, right? I didn't want someone to say I was stingy, but we want to transcend that, to transform to a different type of person, to a different type of creature. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala put us here over all the other creatures that He placed on this earth. As Imam Raqab As-Bahani says that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala put the human being here for three fundamental reasons. One is for Imara, it's for to cultivate the earth, to construct and build on the earth, to construct and cultivate it, the land, et cetera. The second is for Ibadah, it's for the worship of God. And the third reason is for Khilafa, that is to manage and to preserve what is here. There's the three reasons. And in the process, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, after choosing us for this, He gave us the tools that we needed to fulfill these obligations or these tasks or to realize the purposes from which we were created. In other words, God believes in you. God believes in us that we have this capacity. Otherwise, you would not have given us the responsibility. But we won't be able to fulfill that responsibility if we don't embrace His guidance. And so the Quran tells us fast Ramadan. The prophet, Salaam, he fasted outside of Ramadan. His companions, they fast outside of the month of Ramadan. Fasting itself is a tool of spiritual formation that when you're able to restrain and withhold and to abstain from the things that your body needs, it teaches us what you can abstain from. The other thing that your body or your spirit or your soul also does not need. Right, so it opens you up. It teaches us so many different lessons about God, about how God, He deals with us and what He expects of us. But it also teaches us about ourselves. It teaches us about the world, the nature of the world. It teaches us about Satan, about Shaitan and the different ways that He approaches the human being and tries to attack and to undermine our efforts. And so before concluding this first half, right, I wanted to mention four fundamental exercises which are connected with what we call temperance or suburb and fasting itself is a tool of temperance. And these were things mentioned by Ibn Arabi in one book or one Risara that he wrote called Hilgit al-Abdal, the adornment of the substitutes. And so fundamentally, he said one of those things is silence. Silence is an important spiritual practice. Silence not only of our tongues, but to try to silence our hearts from thinking about anything related to anything other than God. Now, of course, there's an enormous challenge, especially in the social world, that we have so many distractions, so many distractions. But silence is a path towards that. And in the process of practicing silence, you gain greater knowledge of Allah, the second exercise he mentions is what is called al-Uzla, al-Uzla, seclusion. Seclusion can happen physically. In other words, sometimes you have to take a break from people. Sometimes the people you know, you have to take a break from them. You take a break from social media. You take a break from anything that makes you feel that you're addicted. Take a break from your telephone. Sometimes it may be good for you to put your phone, leave it home. Go out for an hour or two. Go sit in front of the water. Sit to look, go somewhere where it's quiet. You can hear the sounds of the birds and other things, the water and the wind blowing. Take, withdraw, al-Uzla, is a path towards achieving temperance. So it can happen physically, in other words, and also in your heart. Take a break in your heart to include yourself from the thoughts that are unrelated to God. And of course that's the high station. It's not easy to do that, but reflect upon God's names. You know, reflect upon why God is called al-Kareem, the generous one. Why he's called al-Ghani, the independent, the one who is rich and free of all needs. Why is it Hayy, the living one? And in what ways has God manifested his names in my life? So silence and then al-Uzla, isolation or seclusion. Thirdly, he said azur, hunger. And so hunger is already, we're on that path in Ramadan. We've already taken that step of physically letting go of food and drink and things related to our chronal passions. And then in the last of them he mentions what is called asahara, vigilance. And vigilance in a sense that, and vigilance also we can translate it as sleeplessness. We, a loss of sleep. So it can physically you lose sleep to pray in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. But also you're vigilant about your relationship with your creator at all times. In other words, try to get those bad thoughts away. Try to keep your distance from things that are harmful for you. And while you involve in these things, especially when you are secluding yourself from people, your intention shouldn't be that, although it's a good intention in a sense that they say, I'm protecting myself from the evil of others. A better intention should be that I'm protecting others from my own evil because you know your evil better than other people's evil. That should be your intention. But at any rate, while in the process of fasting, we might want to add to this spiritual practice and this month and then beyond the month, insha'Allah, the introduction of other things like the practice of silence, of seclusion, of hunger and of vigilance. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He grant us the grace and the mercy to fulfill such tasks. I'll call it, Alhamdulillah. As mentioned before, brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given the human being ultimate task on this planet. Although we have failed miserably as we can see, we never give up hope. There will always remain among humanity those who seek to do the right thing, those who seek to live for the reasons they have been creating, to cultivate the earth, to worship their Creator, and to preserve nature as it is. And he's given tools like the Fast of Ramadan, but he's also given us the five pillars among the other things. And so they're not only things that we expected to fulfill as Muslims, that we supposed to pray five times a day of the Fast of Ramadan, or pay our zakat, or hajj, but they're material and spiritual benefits to each one of them. There are many benefits to each one of them. If we just reflect upon the Salat itself, the Quran tells us that it prevents indecency and wrong. Or another way you can translate this is to say it brings an end to indecency and wrong, the Salat itself. And this is something which can be witnessed, or the truth of this can be witnessed immediately. A person becomes Muslim, they welcome to the masjid, they become Muslim, they take shahada, we tell them that you should perform a ritual purification, signifying your entry into a new life, and you cleansing yourself of the filth of your past life. God is forgiving you at this moment. But we also teach them that it's your duty to pray five times a day. That person may be a regular drinker, but they find out, you know, when you can't be drunk when you pray right away, at least for that moment, even if they pray, they drink later on, but at that moment, they have to make sure that they're not drunk. They learn that you also have to be in a state of major ritual purity, and major ritual impurity, it results from intercourse, for instance. So if you had intercourse, and you especially if you weren't married, then you have to wash yourself in a certain way before you pray. So that person gave up drinking or drugs and sexual intercourse at that moment cleans themselves, they prayed. Whatever you do, I don't care how sinful you are, never stop praying. You should always tell people that regardless of how sinful you are, never stop praying, there's always hope for everyone. Everyone, Allah is the judge. His door is always open, regardless of what people around you tell you, even Muslims may tell you wrong. But we know benefits of fasting, we know benefits of the prayer itself. The Hajj itself teaches many lessons as well. Humility removes this sense of classism. Everyone's wearing the same thing. Everyone, reminder that everyone, when you die, everybody, you get put in the same shroud and that same ground as the poor person. The rich and the poor, the same alike. That all of the the efforts and the hard work of that, the walking back and forth, reminders of our past, reminders of the importance of tradition and of history, all those things come out more reflected upon the Hajj. And we know what zakat does, it reminds us of the duties that we have to the poor, to those who don't have anything. When society breaks down and no one's being charitable, who do you think they're going to come after? They're going to come after the ones who they knew scolded them, who they knew they turned a blind eye to their to their plight, who are very rude and harsh with them. They're going to come to those people. But the people who are generous to them, the people who treated them well, the people who are constantly looking out for their needs, those people, they're not going to come, they're not going to come attack those people. And of course, unless they're just simply insane. But at any rate, there are also these material benefits which are added to the spiritual benefits of the five pillars. So as we go into the blessed month, in sha'Allah, I wanted to leave this message for us to reflect upon this deeply. That is a month where the gates are flung open, the gates of jannah, paradise are flung open, the gates of hell, they are flung shut. And the demonic influences have been reduced significantly. The demonic influences have been reduced. One, because we don't have food or drink in our stomachs. So the influences even from ourselves is reduced. But of course, there's this other realm that we are people who are people of faith and the people who believe in things we can't prove scientifically. That's okay. That's what faith is all about. Even though there are many people today who might really kill us for that, but we cling to our faith. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He keep our feet firm on His path. And we ask Him that He blesses and place light in our hearts, in our eyes, in our ears, above us, below us, and all around us. In sha'Allah. Inna Allah wa mara'ikatahu yusalloon aalana nabi. Ya ayyya ladina aamana usallu wa rahi wa salim us-sahlima. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma a'izzu al-Islamu muslimin. Allahumma habb ilayna iliman. Wa zaynahu fi qlubina wa karrihe ilayna al-kufra wa al-fusuk wa al-hassian. Wa ja'ana minal rashideen. Rabbana taqbal minna inna ka anta wa al-Sameen al-Aleem wa tuba alayna inna ka anta tuwa wa al-Raheem. Allahumma aqfir al-muslimin wa muslimat wa muqbinin wa muqminat al-ahya'in minhum wa al-ammat. Wa aqfir rana Allahumma ma'uhum bifaddika wa i'sanika ya ar-Rahm al-Raheemin. Allahumma zaki anfusina, Allahumma aate anfusina taqwaha wa zakiha anta khayr man zakaha anta waliyuha wa maulaha. Allahumma ʿahsinaa qibyatinaa fi al-ummu li kulliha wa jirnaa man khizji al-dunya wa aza bil-aqira. Rabbana aate anfusina wa tuba al-hassana wa al-aqiratihi al-hassana. Waqinaa aza bil-naar wa ʿaza bil-naar wa ʿaza bil-naar. Wa ṣallilāhummu wa sallim wa barakah al-sigri l-nār Muhammadin wa al-ālihi wa ʿashafih al-akhyaar. Wa ṣallim an-katirā wa ṣabhāna rabbika rabbil ʿazzati ʿamma yisifūn. Wa ṣallāmu ʿalām wa ʿalām wa ʿmussirīn. Wa ʿal-ḥamdu liLlāhi rabbī al-āmin wa ʿakim yusraq.