 I seek salvation from shaitan the accursed my dearest viewers from all over the world May peace, blessings and protection of Allah be with you at all times Welcome to another episode of the Ramadan show with me your host Dr. Shabiat Ijani Insha'Allah we hope to be your one-stop shop for the month of Ramadan we'll cover many different areas such as medical health spiritual refinement we'll have some poetry insha'Allah hope to inspire you so that you can get the most out of this month on these special nights please don't forget us in your du'as it is said that these are the nights in which the doors of Allah's mercy are open so please don't forget to supplicate for us for the whole of the Muslim Ummah and of course for the reappearance of the 12th Imam before commencing I would just like to start off with a small quote a hadith this is one of the most inspirational hadiths in my life and it's something that I keep very close to my heart as well it is from the time when say that Zaynab went to the the courtyard of the accursed Yazid and she was asked she said you have been through so much trial and tribulation you've seen what has happened to your brother you've seen your family slaughtered you've been chained and brought into the streets of Damascus and then into the courtyard into my presence what is your thoughts about that and say that Zaynab turned around and said I saw nothing except the beauty of God and this is so close to me that I actually keep it on a wristband and so I can see it at all times and remember that quote because surely no matter what happens to us everything manifests itself in the beauty of God during this episode when we talk about spiritual refinement instead of talking about a specific trait I want to focus our minds on the history and the biography of Fatima to Zahra Salam Allahi alayha because she was one woman who encapsulated all the positive traits that human beings can have often we're told in this world that the value or rather women are undervalued in the religion of Islam you need to look no further than how highly valued Fatima to Zahra is in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Muslims all across the world the holy prophet peace and blessings be upon him has said verily my daughter Fatima to Zahra is the leader of the women of the world just like the holy prophet peace and blessings be upon him Fatima to Zahra was a perfect example the perfect embodiment of a human being whilst the prophet is the example for men she's the example for women she in her lifetime was the complete complete woman complete wife complete daughter and a complete mother a mother of excellence you just have to look at the the children she raised Imam Hassan Imam Hussein lady lady umi kulfoom lady Zainab and you see that these individuals these personalities are a reflection of everything that's holy everything that's good about human beings they reflect characteristics of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you see Fatima to Zahra she raised children in such a way that they are now the crown jewels of the religion of Islam both religious and secular scholars agree that a child begins learning within the womb and the foundation that is laid from the womb is essential for the future character and morals of that child Fatima to Zahra is the ultimate role model for how a mother should be you need to look no further than the way she raised her children it has been narrated by a companion of the holy prophet peace and blessings be upon him in Bihar al Anwar he once saw lady Fatima grinding some grain in the meantime her oldest son Imam Hassan was crying this companion said to her he said would you like me to comfort your son or would you like me to continue or take over grinding the grain for you she kindly said would you mind taking over the grinding whilst I comfort my son this proves the importance of a mother being present around the child emotionally and physically she she showed by doing this that it is essential for a mother to make the child the first priority Fatima to Zahra is considered a ma'a suma she's considered infallible she had the only honor of being a woman who links the prophethood to the aim of the Tahirin therefore when we talk about Fatima to Zahra we're talking about a woman infallible whose manners were superior and unmatched she's considered not only a role model for Muslim women around the world but for all women and for all Muslims as well one who chooses Islam as a school of life has actually chosen the way and goal that's based on human nature thus such a person will search for a crack for a character that possesses all the special characteristics in each aspect of life in order to reach the spiral and ascension towards perfection through understanding the life of Lady Fatima it is very clear to see that she reflects the same characteristics as her father Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him this can be seen in many narrations where the Prophet himself has emphasized the noble characteristics of his daughter once Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him came out whilst holding the hand of Lady Fatima and he said for him who doesn't know her she is Fatima the daughter of Muhammad she's part of me she's my soul which is located between my two sides certainly him who harms her has harmed me and he who harms me has indeed harmed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala another similarity between the message of Allah which in itself is a complete and perfect proof of her being a role model there are many other examples that prove her as a perfect and excellent model role model for everyone for all Muslims alike Aisha the daughter of Abu Bakr and some others have narrated the messenger of Allah Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him has said oh Fatima glad tidings be upon you for the Almighty has selected you above all women in the world and the women of Islam which is the best religion the messenger of Allah has therefore honored his daughter and greatly praised her Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him praises Lady Fatima not only out of fatherly love and affection it's a very objective praise as a matter of fact the praise are due to the existence of morals ethics and values which are incomparable in any other woman on in the in the face of the planet and throughout human history the Holy Prophet aims to make her a clear personality and a role model and a guide Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his infinite wisdom has selected the Holy Prophet peace and blessings be upon him and the infallible imams as the perfect human beings and guides for us all in the same way Lady Fatima is an infallible and she's also a guide for all of us after all she holds that unique characteristic of being the connection between the Seal of the Prophethood and the Iimah the imams this shows and proves her qualities the fact that she was a person an individual a woman with characteristics like no other she's a guide for all the women all of our sisters all of our mothers all of our daughters inshallah if we all follow her guide especially the women in our lives the women of our religion then our society our communities will be a breeding ground for the companions of the 12th Imam alayhi salam the Holy Prophet Muhammad may repeat some blessings of Allah be upon him and his progeny has said surely the month of Ramadan is a great month Allah multiplies in it the good deeds and erases in it the sins and elevates in it the ranks during the course of this month i've been talking about different places across the world and how they prepare themselves for the month of Ramadan having gone through the research and speaking to other people we've found a great collection of people from all around the world who tell us how they are preparing or how they have prepared for the month of Ramadan one of the places which i've heard about even though at the moment it's not quite as as it was is the city of Damascus in Syria especially say that Zainab obviously at the moment due to the unfortunate circumstances in Syria times have changed but of only a few years ago the people of Syria especially say that Zainab have a very specific diet foods they eat and it's very similar to that of the rest of Arabia so things like they eat hummus which is made from chickpea they have lentil soup and they also love their sweets like many of the other Arab countries so this is no different the the main difference that i've found is the way in which the hoses because Damascus used to be one of the centers of knowledge in the shia world the hoses there would host the poor people they would host people from the community inside the hoses and feed them during the time of iftar it is said that the some of the hoses would invite some of the greatest scholars and speakers from the Arab world to come and speak to the population or to speak in the majlis people would sit there and listen to the majlis and gain a lot from these majlises they would host iftar and then they would host people there until the time of sahur a while so they'd have these majlises and especially during the nights of the amal and the nights of al qadr they would have the amal going through the night the other unique thing about say the zainab is that the young people of the families there on the martinem of amir al mu'minin they would climb onto the roof and they would chant and declare their love for the ahlul bait through their chants this is something that is very unique to this part of the world to say the zainab as i've said before and asked many times in previous episodes and will continue to do so through the course of this month we would love to have your videos please send them to us so we can show the rest of the world how you prepare for the month of ramadan what you do on a day-to-day basis how your working life changes during the month of ramadan insha'Allah as we go through this month we will be able to show you more videos more pictures and tell you more about people from all around the world and how their preparation for the month of ramadan differs from other people from around the world today we came in one of the barber shops of the holy city of karbala to ask the brother a few questions about the holy month of ramadan and their job and what they are doing in the holy month of ramadan in the holy city of karbala dearest viewers i have one of the brothers here i will ask him a few questions the brother is saying that the life in the holy city of karbala is totally different the nights are different and the days are different due to the visitors to the holy city of karbala the life in the holy month of ramadan is going on as usual in the holy city of karbala and the visitors come to the holy shrines of imam al khusayn and abal fadl al abbas alayhi salam and uh... in the days of ramadan the work is different from the rest of the day the work is going on in the month of ramadan is going to be more like a night and we are going to stay up late at night, we are going to stay up late for hours and we are going to finish the work at 2 or 2 and a half nights in the day the work is going to be less than the night people are going to be tired and they will leave the holy shrines in the evening i ask the brother about their their job and their working hours he's saying that we usually work at night and we stay up until 2 a.m to 30 a.m in the morning and during the day the the day hours usually the people are staying at home and they do not come to the barbershops and in the month of ramadan you know that the month of ramadan is the month of the Qur'an and the month of prayer and the month of supplication we have the month of ramadan, especially the month of the Qur'an because we have these great friends in the Mosque of Musa we have the month of the Qur'an starting after the Eftar i.e. the month of supplication of the opening after that we finish the day of recitation of the Qur'an so the whole area is the gathering of the Qur'an and the service of many of the Qur'an there are many different Qur'an and some people are reading the Qur'an so we have the month of supplication of the opening and we have the month of supplication of the opening and also in the month of Ramadan, especially during these days the day of supplication of Imam Ali, peace be upon him we have the difference between the opening and the opening in the city of Qalwalaa we have the month of supplication of the opening in the night of the opening between the two doors and it is the opening of the opening of Imam Ali and I am standing in this work in the role of Abu Dhabi and the exit of this work I asked the brother about what is he doing except for his job here in the holy month of Ramadan he is saying that they have a Qur'anic mahal here in the mosque of al-Mousawi after the Eftar, they get together and the youth of this specific part of Qarbala get together and recite du'a al-iftitah and after that they recite one Jaws of the holy Qur'an beside that during the martyrdom the days of the martyrdom of Imam Ali, peace be upon him they have a theater here and they perform a play in which Sayyid has the role of director in this episode we will be talking about medical tips and health advice I want to talk a little bit about a problem or a part of the body that a lot of people suffer with and that is with the gastrointestinal tract the role of the gastrointestinal tract is very very fundamental to the survival of a human being and a lot of people have ailments and problems that range from stomach acidity to things like irritable bowel syndrome Crohn's disease so it's very important to try and get a handle on these different topics these different areas, these different problems and insha'Allah I will try and give you as much advice as I possibly can in order for you to be able to be in as much comfort as possible especially this month of Ramadan the last thing you want to do is after you've had the Eftar and even during the daytime is to be suffering when you could be doing something else which is spiritually elevating for you the role of the gastrointestinal tract is one that is unlike any other in the body of course when we eat foods the first role of the gut or the mouth is to break those foods down into smaller pieces and the food then travels into the stomach in the stomach the acid is very very severe it is said that the acid or the stomach acid is at pH 1 which is one of the strongest forms of acid that you can have now how does the stomach make sure that the acid doesn't corrode away at the stomach the stomach actually produces mucus that lines and coats the stomach itself and stops the acid from penetrating into the tissue of the stomach the food once is being digested in the acids of the stomach it then transports itself into the small intestine the small intestine consists of three different parts the duodenum the jegenum and the ileum so that's the full small intestine here the foods get broken down a bit more and then get passed on to the colon after which they get excluded from the human body along this pathway there can be many problems that individuals face and it's not a pleasant feeling to have when you struggle eating especially in this holy month when you starve yourself for so many hours during the day the last thing you want is when you do eat something for there to be problems the first type of problem that I want to try and address is what we call indigestion or heartburn this is caused well it can be caused by many things but for some people there is no known cause they have no heartburn naturally they have indigestion naturally and there's nothing they can do to try and control that obviously there are things that you should avoid if you do suffer from heartburn things like hot food and chili greasy food has a negative impact on the stomach itself other things are very very sour and acidic fruits and foods also anti-inflammatory tablets such as ibuprofen even steroids can have a detrimental effect to the stomach reason being that ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory tablets actually stop the production of a hormone called prostaglandin it's not a hormone actually it's just a protein that's produced and that prostaglandin actually increases the production of mucus in the stomach so if you take ibuprofen and the production of mucus is suppressed what happens is that the acidity in the stomach corrodes away the tissues and hence causing heartburn another thing you can do in order to help you when you have heartburn especially for people who are fairly overweight is to actually lose the weight the reason being that when you are overweight there is a lot of pressure that is put on the stomach and being a heavy person being overweight actually makes you more prone heartburn for people that suffer from long-term heartburn and for people who can't do anything about it long-term indigestion there are certain steps you can take certain medications you can take that can help you so these medications include a proton pump inhibitor something like lanzoprazole or a similar medication from that family other things you can take are antihistamines specific antihistamines that are designed for the stomach and then there are medications that you can take when you get the symptoms so antacids things like bisodol or other things like gaviscone that can help calm the stomach down after that the next part of the gut which people have trouble with is when the food gets down to the duodenum or further down to the small intestine the problems that people have are things like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis now they fall within the same spectrum of inflammatory bowel disease colitis obviously is more in the colon and Crohn's disease can actually be anywhere in the gut it can be in the mouth it can be in the small intestine or it can be in the colon or anywhere else in the gut for that matter these are very very severe illnesses and people can become very unwell with them people often find that they pass stools which have blood in them or mucus in them and they're passing stools many many times during the day they have severe diarrhea if you're having these symptoms and you have other symptoms that are worrisome things like loss of weight things like loss of appetite if you're finding that all of these symptoms are ringing a bell it is very important that you go and see a doctor as soon as possible because it's important to investigate because Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis can predispose you to developing colon cancer or cancer of the GI tract further down in your life and there are treatments available for these conditions things like immunosuppressants and other medications that you can take but those medications once you've been shown to have inflammatory bowel disease you need to be referred onto a specialist and start you on these very specialized medications as you will need to have regular blood tests whilst you're on them and regular checkups the next part of the gut that I want to talk about is the colon a lot of people have something called irritable bowel syndrome it's a very common condition that many people in the general population have and as a doctor I often get asked about it now irritable bowel syndrome is an over activity of the lining of the bowel so what happens is that our bodies, our gut is designed to pass food down in waves for whatever reason science has linked it to over towards anxiety people who suffer from anxiety tend to have hyper movement of the the spasms of the gut because of this wave activity and if it goes into overdrive of the gut there are certain foods you can take to try and avoid that things like nuts and pulses things like onions there are many other foods out there that can actually have a detrimental effect only if you have irritable bowel syndrome however the most important thing if you do suffer from irritable bowel syndrome is to make sure that you are frequently going to the toilet by that I don't mean you have loose stools that you take plenty of fiber and plenty of water and when you do that it makes it easier for the food to travel down and be excreted from your system during future episodes inshallah I should be talking about how the gut actually is designed what's the job of the gut what is the miracle of absorption how the food gets from the gut itself into the human body and how it provides you with energy and much needed sustenance inshallah until then I hope that this episode has been useful for you especially during the month of Ramadan when our eating habits are completely out of routine for us and we suffer from ailments of the gut inshallah the last thing I want to leave you with is just some advice for you when you are having iftar that advice is that between the time of iftar and sahur try not to eat heavy meals try not to eat a lot and fill your stomach up completely try to have smaller amounts but more frequently what that will do is it will help you to try and stay fit for a start and secondly it will mean that the acid production is limited and also for people who suffer from acidity my advice to them and all lifestyle advice would be to eat frequent meals but smaller meals through the course of the day and to also not eat about four hours before sleep as I've said inshallah in a future episode I'll talk a bit more about the human gut and other systems inshallah you'll get more of an insight into how much of a miracle this system of the human body is one day during the time there was a woman carrying water from the river to take it back to her orphans were waiting for her at her home a man, a strange man was walking by and went to this woman and requested to carry the water for her back to her house the man asked don't you have anyone to carry the water for you she said no my husband was a soldier and Ali sent him to war where he was killed now I am left alone to serve my children strange the strange man said no worries I'll take the water for you back to your house when Ma'aleeb Nabi Talib took the water to her house he saw the children and the orphans he left with the thought in his head next day he came to this woman and knocked on her door the woman said who are you the strange man replied I am the man who brought you water yesterday now I have brought some food and dates for your children the woman replied may Allah bless you and judge between us and Ali Nabi Talib she opened the door entering the man in her house I wish to do some good acts either let me make the flour into bread or feed the children and watch the children really when Ali Nabi Talib saw this and when the women saw this she told the man to watch the children and as he did he fed the children and brushed on one of the children's head and said please forgive Ali Nabi Talib if he had failed you as the woman was making the flour into bread a woman from the next door entered her house and saw Ali Nabi Talib distinguishing the fire making fire so the woman can bake the bread she said what is the commander of faithful doing in her house she in shock she turned to Ali Nabi Talib and said what I am shameful to be in this position Ali Nabi Talib please forgive me Mama Ali Nabi Talib said no I seek your forgiveness because I failed you and failed the duty towards your children as we approach the night of power the night of Al Qadr I want to dedicate the poetry to the one lady that personality who is the embodiment of the power and of the night of power that is none other than Lady Zahra As-Salamu Alayhi Alaih this poem is called Lady of Light which has been written by myself you are the prophet's daughter whose blood runs in your veins who brought Islam to us and the whole world knows his name you are the wife of Haida the mother of Hussein who gave his life for his deen and suffered so much pain Faltima wherever you are wherever you are the truth goes you are the prophet's precious rose your state is only your love Faltima you are the lady of the light you are the highest of the high the light of our prophet you taught us how to live life you showed us how to care you taught us how to give and you showed us how to share you emphasized on morals and trained us to be fair we're poor, perjury one that shines out strong the angels send their blessings upon you all the time you are the purest lady and are the prophet's sign that household that you come from is sacred and devout and there is a special place to sign you are so honest and so true there is no one with you you are the highest of the light of our prophet's eyes Faltima the holy prophet Muhammad may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his progeny has said surely the month of Ramadan is a great month Allah multiplies in it the good deeds the sins and elevates in it the ranks as we conclude this episode of the Ramadan show we approach the nights of power the nights when Allah's doors of His mercy are open these are the nights where we need another supplication and we need to seek forgiveness from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala I want to remind you before I go to please send in your videos and join us on social media before going I just want to part a small thought a little philosophy that I've got to you so that you may be able to use it in your day to day lives and that is that Imam al-Hussain when we talk about Karbala he didn't give everything he had so that you would just mourn for him he gave up what he had so that tomorrow when you're faced with a similar situation you can make the right choice he gave up his everything for your freedom so don't choose to be shackled down by the chains of this world if we use this advice and heed to it and learn from it we will always be free in this world and in the hereafter I would like to finally ask you to please not forget us in your du'as and humbly request you to remember to pray for the reappearance of the awaited Imam peace be upon him and with these words I want to bid you farewell peace be upon you all and the mercy of Allah and his blessings