 Hello blessed Muslim community center of the Bay Area and our friends in Indonesia and whoever else is here This is a lot of fun and it's fun for me to to go back over and try to Pull out the highlights of these various books for you And I know it's hard for people to keep attention more than like 15 or 20 minutes children and adults alike And I'm sorry. This is a whole hour But there's a lot of good things in it and I hope You will now go back and actually look at the books do the workbook Exercises do the fun things in the activities and really get to know the details I'm only giving you kind of a a bit of an overview with a few things that I particularly loved But obviously I can't tell you everything that's in the book So one of the one of the things I want you to know what is I want to want you to know something even if You don't pay as a cat children don't pay as a cat and even if you know, you're not even fasting yet I have to tell you that the qualities and the virtues and the things that you can learn from just learning about these things These these are things you need in your life right now. For example Being generous and being grateful and selfless And self-discipline and patience and being honest and having moderation and trust in God's loving wisdom These are seem to be abstract ideas But what you'll understand and what we're about to learn is that these are not just abstract ideas They're urgent and they relate to your own they relate to your lives. All right So right we're gonna start with a story. All right Once upon a time The children were on a merry-go-round out in the middle of the park and you see them on the merry-go-round And you notice there's some children looking longingly who don't have the money to go They don't even have the small change to go in the merry-go-round and the children are looking at that But the children are on their way from the merry-go-round to go and visit their their elder their teacher Hajj Abdullah, right So on the way to the gate of the garden, they see this beggar and he's putting up his hands and he's saying Lilla Lilla, you know, he's begging for help and the children Run into the garden and they say and they stand before Hajj Abdullah and they say Why are some people rich and some people poor? Have any of you ever had that thought? I mean, I've had that thought. Yes, you me too. And so So Hajj Abdullah said well before Let me just tell you something when the beggar is saying Lilla Lee means Lee for the sake of God But Lee also means it belongs to God like we say inna li la he surely we belong to God, right? So he says to the children go and take this change out to the beggar and then come back And I'm going to explain something to you. He said I just have to tell you dear children all of you Did any of you any of you out there? Did you give yourself your mother and father? Did you give yourself your life? Did you give yourself? Who you are you didn't give yourself anything, right? Allah gave you everything and so He gave you everything But it's on loan to you. It's just a loan what you've got who you are is just a loan It's a trust you've been given and then Allah sends you all these ways that you can give it back So anyway, Hajj Abdullah gives the children some money and they run and take it to the beggar He said when somebody reaches out to you Do you ignore them children when someone reaches out for you for help? Do you ignore them or do you do help them when they reach out? You know even Anyone is reaching out. Maybe there's someone sad at school and they're reaching out and they're lonely So of course, so then the children go and give the money to the beggar and then they come back and then Hajj Abdullah said children. I'm gonna tell you a story now. Wait until you hear this story There's how not to give and how you should give all right once upon a time. There was a king and There were some people in the village that didn't have any food So he went to this man the man you see here with the red top and he was a land owner and he had tons of like animals and fruits and vegetables and he said Go go rich man take some of the food and feed the people in the town But this rich man he forgot that his farm was only on loan It was a loan from God. It was it was a trust. He thought this food is mine So he goes into town and look what he does. He holds the food up on a plate. You see him doing it and So the people the poor people have to reach up. They feel low They're like begging for food right and even they're thinking oh my goodness next time he comes into town Do you think we're beholden to him? Do you think we now maybe have to take care of his horse for the day? Is that the right way to give or the wrong way to give everyone? Wrong right wouldn't it be exactly? Wouldn't it be terrible? You know if you were giving something to someone and you made them feel low and begging right now You're gonna hear the right way to give once upon a time There was the wonderful king and there was a poor widow and the poor widow in town had no money to educate her children So he sent this wonderful man this man on the right in the beige coat he was an orphan and He grew up some wealthy people taught him finance and money and so the king went to him and said see there's a poor widow She's in town. She needs money. So he took her gold. Look how he's gone He's taken the gold. He holds the gold low. He doesn't hold it up high He holds it low and he bends down a bit and he looks up into her face And he says you can read it on the screen. Oh Blessed lady what a favor and an honor it is for me That you accept this humble offering which I am delivering to you on behalf of the king The king is a law right king is God, right? By accepting you make it possible for me to fulfill my sacred duty I am the one receiving the benefit each of us has given special skills when we come into this world Which are meant to be ways of serving others But it is very difficult if we are born or become rich. So what he's saying is I Beg you to take this gold in order that I may fulfill my duty to God And what is the duty to God he's given us skills at a place and time and space and connections And these are the ways we are supposed to help other people to return that favor And I have to tell you children that when I read this particular story it changed my life And I'll tell you how we're all told we should be humble not proud That we should learn to be utterly humble before people and I was thinking how do you feel humble? Well now as a result of this story. I know I'm nobody. I didn't give myself who I am. I Mean writing these gazelle children's books who gave me the ability the skills The the knowledge of the scholars that I knew who actually who actually gave me the connections like you all Allah so since I'm nobody, right? I can feel humble not full of pride, right? So remember this is a very very important story for me. It was like it really changed my life to be quite honest And then let me just do this Now let me put my glasses on here Zakat Zakat giving charity Cleanses your heart and purifies what you have Right because it all belongs to God, right? And Zakat is always good for you all now I'm not you all aren't paying that kind of Zakat But you can give things away too because it's it's a test for you to practice your generosity And you're all you're gonna get to do this with your toys. All right, and It's not only a test, but you know if we fail to be giving things away We start hoarding things keeping all of our toys and it makes us greedy, right? We hang on to what we have, you know, but by the way, it's very dangerous not to be generous and pay your Zakat One of the Prophet's companions his name was Abu Dhar He said I I came upon the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him in the shade of the Kaaba And he heard the Prophet saying By the Lord of the Kaaba They are the losers and so this man said to the Prophet Who are the losers? Who are the losers everybody? He said people who have plenty of wealth And and and and don't give and then There are those who say another type of person that says here here They try to give everyone who's in front of them to the side of them behind them to the right or the left of them And those are the those are very few people indeed. Which type of person are you? Are you always giving to the people in front of you to the right and the left and behind you? Are you holding on to? Right, you want to be one of the few the good ones that give right? Right All right, so the children when they heard this story, you know what they did They ran back to the merry-go-round and they felt in their pockets and they did have some change So they ran to the children and they said we don't want to be losers We want to polish our hearts from greed, right? So this is you know every opportunity you have to give it's a blessed chance, right? so then Hajj Abdullah He just sits with the children. They've come back in the woods and they're sitting with him in the forest by his big tree, right? And he said you know kids Even though you're too young to pace the cat You need to understand it and you need to practice the virtues that are underneath of it, right? But you need to also know there are different kinds of the cat and also they are manners Different kinds of manners when you give and you receive and then certain things qualify people for being able to receive the cat And then there's something called saddaka. Have you all heard of saddaka? It's just voluntary charity giving. Yeah You heard of that and did you know even a smile? Yeah, yeah, that's you know that it's saddaka, right? It's charity. Okay, so then you know people pay this a cut once a year before Ramadan and They they if you're on a farm, maybe you're all your wealth is in front farm animals Maybe you have sheep and you give a certain amount of your sheep your extra sheep Maybe you grow corn and you give corn Maybe you have camels, right? You give and you have extra camels, right? So you would be giving something like the things that you have but in today's world people don't have camels They may have bank accounts. They may have jewelry. They may have extra land or wealth and that's the kind of thing they give So you're gonna learn all these rules when you grow up, right? Now you see these children here Declan a village where they don't have much money, right? And if there's something called the cut will fit and that is you want to give it before the Eid So everybody you see they've come to get food So everyone has enough food for the Eid wouldn't it be sad to have Eid and no food Wouldn't that be sad? But there's also regular Zakat, which you can pay, you know We had either no candy. Yeah, exactly imagine no candy nothing, right? So anyway Did you know that there are Five parts that are necessary to pay as a cat, you know and children I mean you can let's pretend Let's pretend your grown-ups will everybody pretend you're a grown-up right now. Okay. Yeah, sure. You're a grown-up. Okay now These the first thing I want you all to do. All right, put your hands on your hearts right now feel your heart. All right Before you give yours a cat you have to intend something from your heart Pretend you're in God's presence right now and you've decided to give back from all the things you have So your first thing is from your heart you say I intend to give This Ramadan I'm going to give right and also I promise not to delay I'm not going to just put it off and put it off, right and now there are two reasons I'm doing it now. Think of all of this one. I'm doing it because I want to help other people Do you want to help other people? Yes, and also I'm also doing it because I'm obeying a lot. Didn't Allah ask us to do this Yeah, but you know what maybe sometimes it's not easy It's even easy. Say you have a lot of money You've got to figure out how much extra you have you have to set aside the correct amounts And there are eight types of people you have to give to it's not easy to do all this, right? So what about you all do this you go in your bedrooms and you make a huge pile of all your toys You have a lot of that don't you? Yeah Yeah, you have a pile all right, so now You have to you have to be very honest you want to give you're going to give some away You don't have money to give but you have toys all right So another thing you need to do is it's important is in in some Oh These are these are some children. They had basketball and they wondered my goodness We bought the basketball. Do we have to pay as a cat on it? No, no, they don't right? They don't now you see when you have yours a cat You know what if you give it to people in another town another city the people in your own town feel sorry It says here when the money and goods are collected in a town and your toys, right? It's usual for these to be given to the needy in the same town The poor would have their hopes crushed if everything was set off to a different place so that's the fourth important thing that you give it in your own town and Also, there are different categories of people that you give to do you know there are people who are very poor They don't even have a change of clothes Then they're needy people right who don't make enough to survive then they're people who have debt They owe money and then they're prisoners who are deserving and then maybe they're people who are traveling for the sake of God, right? And so all of these are categories of people now look at this little girl here We have been learning from Imam al-Ghazali that they're both inner and outer ways of doing everything Just like in wudu and prayer Remember in wudu and prayer you can do your wudu fast or you can be remembered from last week two weeks ago You can be doing your wudu and saying may Allah forgive me for what I've done a lot Please make me as I'm rinsing my mouth say the right thing That's the inner thing to do and with your prayer remember are you just moving your lips? Are you just doing postures? Are you just saying ayat and you don't think about it? No, there's an inner way to pray and an inner way to do wudu. Well, there's an inner way to give cicat as well, right? Giving to the needy is outward help, but inwardly are we helping ourselves by just doing what God asks us to do? Yes, right? So let me go on Now oh, sorry it keeps doing this now You to start with you know, you need to um They're inward manners of giving here's a little boy. He's sitting with his toys Imam al-Ghazali makes a great suggestion for polishing greed of your golden heart children Get used to giving things away all the time force it to do every day give something every day And you know what if you do that every day kids it's going to become a habit And this is for adults too every day give something just keep doing it little big not so big little And it'll become a habit and that will then it won't be so hard once it becomes a habit so we want to um um Giving giving cicat Is a test it helps you reach the next world And it helps to polish greed off your hearts But it's also a way of thanking God for all that you have like Maybe you're attached to your stuff and you really love your stuff. Maybe this little boy. What is he putting into the box here? Maybe it looks like a kind of yellow I don't know what it is Oh, it looks like a trumpet you're right. I bet what maybe it's really hard for him to part with that, right? So there's three types of people who give right? Now you remember what the prophet's life was like. Do you remember how he had very little Someone would come and he'd give them all the food he had in the house Well, one day he said to the companion Omar, right? Now with cicat What did you keep back for your family and the companion Omar said? I gave half of everything and I kept half from my family And then he went to Abu Bakr Sadiq and he said And what did you keep back for your family? And he said what I kept back from my family was a lot in his messenger. I gave everything now These are incredible people that they can give everything But then they're the kind of people right who um They give they they keep they give a lot But they keep keep back for all of their needs and in case there's an emergency And they don't live in luxury. That's pretty hard to do still and then the normal people Who just give exactly what was asked no more, right? But don't you think it's good to be generous at all times everybody? What do you think? Should you always be generous? I don't know Yeah, okay. Look at this little boy Can you read what he says? I'm pretty greedy with my things It's not easy sharing or letting my friends take turns with my bike or giving things away I find that I want to keep it all So my goodness The Quran says whoever is saved from his own greed Those are the successful ones. It's very important to clean your heart from greed Because you know what what the prophet said peace and blessings be upon him. He said greed Holding on to everything right That can lead you to becoming completely lost Can you imagine getting completely lost? So children Would you would you like would you take the habit with all of you promise to give something even something little every day? Do you all promise to do this? Mothers and fathers too because if you do it every day, you know what? The greed will go down down down And happiness will go up up up because you know what? It's fun to give people and it makes you happy and you will love it So now The third aim of zakat, right? I have a question Please ask it. What is it? So I don't Get how I get lost if I'm greedy like I don't get how All right, I'll tell you how Because it makes a big dirt on your golden heart And that and you lose your way if you have a dirty heart, you know Do you know a clear heart is like have you ever seen a pond and trees are reflected in it? Beautiful reflections, but if the pond is full of waves, right? You can't see anything everything is It's not reflected correctly the tree looks like just a bunch of spots, right? If your heart is covered with spots, how can it reflect a law's light, right? You want to keep your heart Totally golden. So that's a very good question. I'm glad you asked it, right? So I also have a question I would like to hear it. What is your question? When you say a Like like you do it. What if you can't find some but some thing to give your toys to and then you when you go up and you're like Duh all then you have have like a kid or um or or like Nephew or something Does it still count out if you give it to a nephew? Yeah Yes, you can give to anybody Even I'll tell you what even if you have a handful of peanuts and you go and give a peanut to a cat Or you give a a cookie to your mother all that is giving just little bits of giving you all can find little You know what giving is you can run in the kitchen and say mommy I want to give you a surprise. I'm gonna set the table. That's giving too, isn't it? Yeah And also And also I was wondering if you have a pet Pet does it count if you give them food that's giving right? Yes, and they will they they love to be given to you know, everybody like don't you like to receive gifts when someone gives you something Do you like that? Yes of it. Yes Well, there you go. Yes Yeah, and so yes And so also um, you know why we're so lucky You know with for our bodies if we do fasting and prayer Oh, we're our In a way, we're showing thanks That our body had nothing to give Everybody has something to You know what you could do you could just take a piece of paper and write a little card I love you mom and take it and give it to her. Wouldn't that be giving something? What if it's not anything? Anything, you know but so Like helping around the house that's Yeah, so now what I want you all to think about is this Remember what the good person does they're running and they're saying here here Here to their person in front of them to the person at the side We want to be children and grown-ups that say here here have this You know someone comes into your house to visit here. Have a cookie You know, so let's be the group of the good group that says here. All right Now I moved to another picture here Now uh-oh There's some inner duties When you give okay, and you can start these from right now when you're young. All right You see this little girl She's putting money in the donation box, but she's showing everybody is she trying to show off and impress everybody It says if you give the cat or any charity in order to impress or be seen by others Your good deed is worth nothing What you should do should be done in secret The prophet said peace and blessings be upon him God doesn't accept the good deeds from somebody who reminds everyone of the favors he has done for them Say you go and do something nice for someone you help your mother and then you run and tell everyone Daddy, I help mother you go to your brothers. You go to your grandmother. I I help mother So you're trying where are you taking your credit from a law or from them? You're just trying to you know, you're trying to remind everybody what a good person you are So you don't want to do that right that would be the wrong thing to do Showing off All right And so anyway God records your deeds, you know, the angels record your deeds your good deeds He records what you do in secret what you do in public And what you do only to be seen by others like people who are bragging right But sometimes, you know, it's it's hard to remember, you know That we're we're we have golden hearts and you think people won't like you if you don't impress them And show off and tell them what you've done, you know And you know, we all do this I mean Sometimes I want people to know when I've done something good. Do you ever experience that? Have you ever experienced that that you want people to know if you've done something good? Yes But you know what? But when we watch people Bragging and telling everybody the good they did Doesn't it impress us most if we notice somebody is doing it silently and sort of in secretly? That's much more impressive, you know So also It says also look at this if someone asks you for money in public You should always give it to him or her You don't you you might risk your heart, you know by showing off But also You also don't want to hurt somebody by turning them down if somebody reaches out, you know, I keep Dollar bills $20 bills in the car when I'm driving around if I come to a stoplight and somebody's They're playing music or they have a sign. They need money. I unroll the money and immediately give it, right? Because they've reached out and because I don't want to turn them down You don't want to disappoint someone who's reaching out to you But also there is the question You want to do it in secret, right? You don't want to show off your giving money So then there's this question that arises What if you're at a fundraiser? And everyone's saying Who's going to give the the the auctioneer says who's going to give more money? We're raising money for this for this mask And if you raise your hand Maybe it's not to be to be a showoff Maybe it's by you raising your hand and saying I will give $500 That maybe encourages other people at your table and they feel I'll give 500 So your intention is to get other people to do it. It's not to show off And also there's another thing too, you know For example, here is a man. Okay Abdullah asked but what if someone gives a lot of money to help build a mask People will know about this father Hamza replied. Yes But the upright giver wouldn't remind people So I don't think you can give and people can know about it But you don't want to remind people by the way everyone I gave $500 for the new mask. Yes. Yes. I gave I gave Would that be good or would that be showing off? Showing off Yeah And good Yeah But by the way Say you give to a poor person, you know, and they receive what you give to them. Do you know what? They also get blessings Because they are helping a rich person to fulfill their duty of giving right Do you know rich people? They have many trials because They face being greedy and full of pride if you're poor, how can you be greedy? You know or or show off because you have nothing So in any case even a poor person is helping Is being generous to a rich person by receiving what they give. So, you know, um We need to see ours the cat or our oh another thing This is important. Let me see if it's the next picture Look, here's a little girl. She has nothing if you saw that little girl, wouldn't you give her something? Wouldn't you give her something everybody? What would you give her? Yes Toys Money. Yeah, exactly Yeah, exactly Yeah, we don't we and we don't want to remind her that we're being generous but i'm going to tell you something kids Being greedy is so bad for your heart That here's some ideas from ma'am al ghazali to keep you from being so greedy. Listen to this. Okay Realize what you're giving is small. Okay, if you go in your room with your pile of Toys And you only give some toy you don't care about one little toy and there's the rest of the pile there Just realize right Right, i'm i'm really giving very little Right and and then you have to remember all those toys are just from a law and they're on loan They're for you to use and to help and serve with so this you should feel shame for not giving more right and then for example let's say let's say See these little boys Oh a boy at school asked me to watch out for his big collection of lego pieces When he came to collect them, I kept a few pieces back for myself thinking it was a small amount and wouldn't be missed I can't believe I did this because he was stealing them, right? I will be returning them to him. I'm ashamed and embarrassed. So if you do anything naughty or wrong You can always give it back. You can always say you're sorry and you can always change your ways, right? Now here's grandfather was a beekeeper, right? And it was time for him to give his a cat So he had lots of wonderful honey And so the the children were interested that you know, they enjoyed the bees a lot and then when he came to give his honey You know beekeepers. Uh, we were beekeepers. We had beehives in egypt And we would take the beehives not just to clover But when there was the orange blossoms just for a short time on the orange trees We put our hives in the orange trees And the and then took them out and the honey is like little flecks of orange and taste like orange I bet you never taste that honey everybody because it's so rare and beekeepers usually keep it for themselves But you know what grandfather did? The children said so why are you giving your very best honey away? Children grandfather replied Whom do we prefer a lots upon a watala or others? It is good to give your very best. Would you give your worst food to guests if they came to your home? You wouldn't do that. Would you children? So when it comes to going to your pile of toys Try to give your best. I know it's going to be very hard But that's the greatest thing that you can do right now also I have another question Okay, go ahead if you Say if you encourage somebody body to give is that still giving because if you encourage somebody to give It's kind of like you're giving Yes, that's a way of giving to encourage other people to give that is very You all are really smart kids. I have to tell you. I mean that you even saw that is really brilliant, right? Now there are eight kinds of people you you can give to let's think about these kinds Now you see this old lady here. Haja Siddhika spends every moment in prayer. She's devoted to the next life We send her food regularly by feeding and helping pious people I understand we are sharing in the rewards of their practice What if she didn't have enough to eat and she was too weak to be glorifying a law and we did nothing about it So you must you ever know people that are old and perhaps poor, but they're very devout people, right? So that's one kind and another kind is there may be scholars who give their life to studying And teaching that's another they may need money. They may need help, right? And then there's another thing you can do Say you want to give to somebody and you don't want to embarrass them So you go to their home and when they're not looking you put behind the couch Maybe some money. Maybe some food. Maybe some gifts, right? But it's really what's going on is um You are doing it for the sake of a law And a law knows that these people need need help So a law uses you kind of is like a bridge to bring that to them So these sometimes you don't want to be thanked. Do you you weren't doing it for thanks. Were you You were doing it because it's the correct thing to do So um, so sometimes if someone gives you something You don't have to thank them. You could say Praise to god who didn't forget someone who who needed help That's another way to do it. And also there is another type of person to give to You see here's a dignified man. He's very poor and he hides his needs. He doesn't complain. He doesn't say I'm poor He doesn't grumble and ask for his needs. That's a good type of person to give to right And then there's some people who are disabled or hurt or they've been ill, right? And they need support because they can't even help themselves. That's a good type of person to give to And then also you may have relatives who need money, right? Or maybe you have people that are your spiritual companions. These are all good people to give to So now one day the children are gonna this we're about to end the story of zakat before we do fasting One day the children are going on a hike So they're gonna have a picnic on top of a mountain and they're walking through this town And they see a great number of people who have very little some of them are reading Quran Some of them are smelling selling small items of food and they and they There's the difference the people who are here are people who really don't even have a change of clothes But the people who are miskeying They actually have jobs, but they can't make enough. They can't make enough To to support themselves So poor people who don't have enough They are very aware that they depend on the law But if you have an awful lot of stuff You forget that you depend on a law you you don't even remember that you're depending on the law So poor people have that advantage. They know they know they're aware that they depend on God So also if people give us something, right? We we should thank them maybe what it's coming from a law But we have to thank those who give us because Uh, the the prophet said peace and blessings be upon us He who does not thank people does not thank God So it it's our also our duty to pray for people who give to us Right and if people do a favor we should return it and if we're unable to return the favor We can pray for them too Now The children here are on a journey Are we all on a spiritual journey together you and me and all of us together? We are your mother your dad your teachers We're on a journey and we're trying to reach our golden hearts So here the kids they're going up a path a path of their golden heart up the mountaintop And oh by the way if this is another important thing Right if someone gives you a gift Make a big deal out of it say somebody has made something and they hand it to you What do you just say I'll just you just take it and say oh, thanks. No, wouldn't you say thank you so much You make a big deal about them giving you something and and like you want to see other people They're getting praise and we should do it in front of everyone You have to make a big deal and even for example like cooking look at this lady It says my mom cooks all day for the guests But she politely plays it down when the guests come she just says Oh, please come for a tiny bit of refreshment. She doesn't say I've been in the kitchen all day long Slaveing getting the food ready for you. Right. She makes light of it. You know, she doesn't want to attract a lot of praise So these are some of the ways to give right you don't brag about it. All right Now also imam al-Ghazali said Avoid things that are doubtful And that is a mark of somebody on the path to the next world Right, you can feel it in your heart if you're not sure whether you should do something or not Whether it's good or bad ask your heart and your heart will grate a little bit It'll tell you so you should about Avoid if you don't know whether a thing is good or bad just avoid it. All right So the children finally reached the top of the mountain But the path was filled with many difficulties and they remembered the story Imam al-Ghazali told in the book of knowledge that we're on a journey. You children, we're all on a journey Do you think the path is going to be easy? They're going to be no rocks in the path. No They're going to be difficult patches. Right, but these are our opportunities to polish our heart. So Also, if you saw a little girl like this who is sad, what would you what would any of you all do? What would you do? What would be your charity? Tell me Cheer her up Cheer her up, right? That would be charity. That's sadaka, you know, even a kind word And you know when you're little like you all and let's say like your mothers and fathers You all are very young, right? You all are very young, right? and so And so when you have to give something away, maybe it's tough on you because you know, it's hard You want to hang on to your toys you want to hang on to your wealth But if you do it when you're young or like your parents age Many rewards because it's difficult to give you get to be old a person like me I don't mind giving things away because I want to get rid of things, right? I have all the I don't even need what I've got Do you think I get as many rewards for that? No right now while you're young if you give You get many many special rewards for that, right? And also another thing everybody You don't want to you don't want to complain if you're sick don't complain about it If you if if um if you've given charity don't brag about it Don't complain about your hardships. Oh, I'm having such a hard time Do you like to listen to people talking like that? Oh, I'm having such a hard time. I've got so many problems I've got a headache. Do you like that kind of do you like to listen to that? No, no So it's you're being charitable You're being giving charity if you don't do that to people if you give people a break, right? So we'll end this with the story about the sweater. All right You know how we talked earlier how it's better to give things in secret and not show off Look what's happened here This little girl said when I gave my pink jacket to the little girl in the park I wanted you all to see instead of my trying to please god I wanted everybody to think highly of me and even worse. I did it openly I could have hurt the little girl's self-respect Besides humiliating her. I singled her out from the others. I disgraced myself too So if you're going to give something to someone right You you particularly if they're in need You don't you want to protect them? You don't want them to be ashamed of being needy. Do you and also you don't want maybe the people who're looking She's giving the pink jacket. Maybe they're envious. Maybe they wish I'm getting the pink jacket too So there is by giving in public you might create people might feel envious and you know You know what imam al ghazali said you won't believe this everybody parents and children He said, you know imagine You might be careful when you go out to a party or to a big occasion if you wear a really fancy new pretty outfit Maybe people will envy envy you. Do you want Do you want to create envy? No, it's a terrible thing envy So even to the point of not showing off when you go out with your clothes, right? So children, you know, finally the end I have a question. I'd like to hear your question. What is it? um My mom told me that the profits I swam when you go outside I you should You should um, you should wear nice Clothes, but you just said we said we're nice. Oh, no, you should wear nice clothes But not very show-offy very fancy very expensive not to show off with not to make people envy you No, we want to wear nice clothes. We of course we have to be we have to direct dress with dignity and beauty All that that's a very good thing you pointed out. Thank you. Can I tell my question now? Yes Oh, I'd love to hear your question. What is it? What is envious mean? Envious is to want what somebody else has Maybe you see they have a pretty dress or a better doll Or a fancier car and you wish I wish I had what they had that's to envy Instead of me The other way is to be content. I have what Allah gave me Alhamdulillah, right? Thank you. That's a good question Okay, so now we're going to have the last question So the children made it to the top of the mountain of their journey Here high up among the heavenly clouds surrounding their mountain top The children could see clearly with real sight They could understand all of these invisible inner things that go on inside of us that make all the difference So I think what we've just learned is that it's really really important The way you give inside how you are, you know, I think we've all learned something from this So now we're going to do very quickly. It's very short the fasting chapter of ghazali is just two or three pages But I don't want you to miss it because it's got many amazing things You're going to have any of you ever tried to fast Ramadan even for a day or so. Have you tried? You have was it very? Every Ramadan You do you do um even oh, that's wonderful. I fasted I fasted like a cup like most of Ramadan And once I fasted too Oh, I'm so I once I saw I do but my stomach could I fasted for two hours Oh, that's wonderful When you're older you can do it now you're gonna hear a little bit about 25 days that's brilliant. That's just great. All right. So I'm gonna start out And tell you a little a few highlights here. All right Okay fast you're gonna hear some fasting. Okay. Look at this see these kids in this fortress. They made out of cardboard Fasting is like a protective fortress. It protects you once you're inside notice that when you are When you are not full but you feel a bit weak From fasting you feel more spiritual When you're slowed down and you don't feel all your everyday busy self It's easier to be more aware of your spiritual heart. The fasting kind of weakens you but it's actually It's like a safe fortress You can get inside and you're not just totally overwhelmed by all your worldly It gives you a state of peace, right and hamsa yousuf said It also lets you feel when you're calm you feel gratitude, right? You're you can be grateful that you have eyelashes Why aren't we happy to have eyelashes and eyelids? They're like windshield wipers for our eyes We can say oh, we have eyelids We can start to think about things we might overlook because we calm down when we're fasting, right and also because If we didn't have eyelashes, we would look ugly Oh, you remember that remember that we we were doing that from That's one that we were talking about the sunnah last time of prayer And if your prayer didn't have all the sunnah, it would be ugly like not having eyelashes good for you that you remember that You really learned a lot last time. I'm very proud of you and also remember in In ramadan also the doors of paradise are wide open and there's a special gate to jannah And it's called the gate of rahan. It's a rahan for people who fast now Did you know that fasting just like we do in prayer has inner and outer parts The outer parts of of fasting or what? Giving up food and drink and water and all that all day long. Isn't that right? That's what you do But did you know there's something you can do inside too? Like being patient patient is being patient is like invisible, right? Okay, let's look at this here these They're being patient. Look at that. They're sitting with a big cake and they're fasting little abed added. Yes Fasting can teach us a lot of different things. What if mother made a yummy cake and put it on the table? I would certainly want to run up and have a big bite right away But when we are fasting we have to be patient and we wait for later We get a chance to practice and learn patience Which we know is very important. In fact, we're told that Half of half of fasting is patience because it's that hard, you know, there's a There's a hadith al-Quds. Do you know what a hadith al-Quds is? This isn't something just that the prophet himself peace and blessings be upon him said It's something he heard from Allah, right and it says God By the way, God is boasting to his angels about a young person. It could be one of you Who is devoted to God's worship and service? And he's and he says oh young person Who have given up your desires and sacrifice this time of your health and your strength for my sake and me? You are like one of my angels So in other words children You and oh you're active and you want to be outdoors and you're running around and All this you got all this energy and all of a sudden you're fasting you giving up all that running around your grandmother Maybe she's just sitting at home anyway, and she's not giving up much But it's it's tough. You've got to give up fun activities and running around and all your energetic stuff So when you fast and you give up some of all that and you're calm down You get very you get to be like one of Allah's angels. Wouldn't you all like to be one of the angels sure? and also It's also because you get a very special relationship with Allah when you fast Fasting is done alone Only for me. This is Allah saying it so I give a special reward for it Only god knows if you're fasting people can see you praying can't they people can see you doing wudu People can see you giving zakat. Can they see you fasting? No, how can they tell whether you're fasting you could have Secretly eaten a bite of candy, right? And so it's so Say what yes, yeah Go ahead share um, I mean myself Um, do you know when you break your fast? I'm pretty so if you stop thinking Of a law for one second, and I'm pretty so that puts your fast too. Is that sure What what was the question? Oh, I don't know a question. It was kind of a question I asked asked when um, I heard I heard some Where did if you stop thinking of a law for a second when you're Fasting In that it breaks your fast. Is that sure? well No, you can't possibly think of the law all the time But you want to come back to thinking of the law none of us can do it. It's too hard But we are trying that you've got it right. It's the aim what you've talked about is what we aim to do It's the ideal, but it doesn't break your fast if you can't think of him at all times We wish we could but what's happening is our fasting is starting to like Oh, it's lowering our our nafs our lower self We're getting weaker and all and also when you're fasting It's like a shield. It protects us, you know And look at the kaba here imam al ghazali explains that just as the kaba And the sacred sanctuary that surrounds it are especially honored by a law Even though the whole earth is sacred and belongs to him Fasting is special to a law among all the ibadah, you know We we have prayer and and everything else and those are all wonderful But he says fasting is special the way the kaba and the sanctuary is special So it's a it's a very special thing. We're getting to do now All right children Now I know you all all of you want to keep your pure golden noble hearts golden, okay So i'm going to tell you the the outer and the inner ways to do it with with fasting. Okay to start with There are six things you've got to do. Okay, and it's outer first The moon has to be seen. Did you all know that? That someone has to see the crescent moon for ramadan to begin right? Yes, you're that right? Yes Right and then also Then also the night before The night before and I've forgotten this every night before you're going to fast the next day You have to intend that night tomorrow Thursday I intend to fast For a lot for ramadan you can't wake up in the morning and think oh i'm gonna fast You're supposed to intend it the night before so I want you all to remember that right? And then of course you all know that uh, you can't take anything in medicine or nothing And you can't go in the bathroom and gargle water hoping some will give you some relief You can't do that right so and there are other things you can't do But grown-ups will tell you about this and all these extra rules you'll find out But also you want to eat. You don't want to like eating it Have the whore at midnight You want to wait until it's close to the fadjir prayer as you can to have your to have your Your last bit of food to eat and then you want to hurry and when the fast is over You want to hurry and break it with dates and water you all know that and by the way After noon, you don't want to brush your teeth or use the swack because that also gives you relief and We're not trying to get relief right now. What it is good is if Now listen to this children It's good if you do ramadan you can recite and study Quran Maybe a 1 30th every day and an evening Do you ever go with your your parents to the mosque to do the tarawih prayers? Have you ever done that? Now i'm gonna Now guess what i'm gonna tell you something Here's something very exciting. Okay. There's very exciting Do you know The uh prophet peace and blessings be upon him. He would spend the last 10 days In the mosque making a retreat. It's called it to calf. Can you all say it to calf? Say it it to calf The calf all right It to calf and he in fact Took his family and the companions everyone went and did that And they stayed the last 10 days because in the last 10 days by the way one of those days There will be the night of power And if you happen to be praying at that time It's worth more than a thousand months So it's it's in the last 10 days and the as i said the prophet did it with his family Well, let me just tell you something children Listen to this One of the children exclaimed omar You don't have to wait until you until next year the mosque near my house has a special program during the last 10 days We children take our sleeping bags During the day we have special classes a chance to read religious books And of course we recite Quran by already going on retreat at our age We can start the practice of an important sunnah of our blessed prophet Not only that we can polish our hearts by practicing patience So children you might ask your local mosque next ramadan If you all can come in maybe just for a few hours and practice your retreat Maybe you just do it a little bit and get used to it. Wouldn't that be fun to do? You get to do the very special retreat. I mean it's amazing Now hajj abdulla All right, hajj abdulla I have a question. Okay, go ahead What like um, um Friday The kids say we have to bring our sleeping bags when they were not even gonna sleep there Yeah Well, maybe you could sleep there with your parents But maybe you could also just take a nap or rest, you know You know what you all are Really smart, you know because Somebody saying hi hi So you're really right about that It could rest maybe your father or mother would be doing the whole spending the night And maybe you could spend the night too But you'd have to be very good. You'd have to be very quiet. Could you do that? Could you be quiet? You could give it a try you could probably not Probably not. Well, just like some of you are just fasting for a few hours Right now, maybe you could just go and do retreat for an hour All right, now we've got to the end of our program you all are tired I think you all are real troopers the fact that you all have stayed up this late And you've been this attentive Whoever is calling out they should be quiet so we can do the last bit. All right. Here we go. All right. Oops Oh, dear. I wanted to go back to here Hajj Abdullah. All right They went to Hajj Abdullah and he began began I am sure you came today because you wanted to learn about the inner secret conditions of the fast What Imam al-Ghazali teaches us you should first know there three levels of fasting everybody three levels one done by most people And then there's the fasting of the elect and then there's the special folk and the The fasting of the elect of the elect the really really special people the children wondered If they were special enough to be in the second group. Okay. I'm going to tell you the three groups The normal group is people who give up Eating and drinking and all of that during the day You know what you just the normal fast But then the special people and you all can start to do this you can become part of the special people They also I'm already the special people Of course you are you already got a golden heart. You just want to keep it that way, you know So then the next thing is You know in wudu how we when we rinse our mouth. We're not just Spitting the water out. We're actually thinking ya Allah keep me from saying bad things Washington years don't let me listen to bad things you can do it when you're fasting So all the body parts the ears the mouth the nose the feet the hands They get to fast too and I'll tell you how right and then the last one is The fasting of the heart now. This is this is like The prophet peace and blessings be upon him and all the Wonderful saintly beings. These are people who only in Ramadan. They never think of anything Yes, you know what um, one of you mentioned about thinking only about Allah They only think about Allah and the last day and they and and And nothing more, but that's very hard to do you have to be so pure Your heart has to be so polished and so golden But that's so we're going to try to be like the middle group We're not going to just fast from food and drink and watch tv all day and hang out and think and say any dumb thing And and listen to stupid music. We're not going to do that We're going to we're going to try to do the fast of the special people the salihin So I want you all to begin right now Let's think of ways that your eyes can fast Do you think your eyes are fasting if you're just Watching hundreds of dumb cartoons all of the all day long or what would be better to do with your eyes? Can anyone think what would be a more beautiful thing to do with your eyes? What could you look at that's beautiful Listen to the Quran Yes Eyes maybe you go outside and look at the trees and the flowers you know Right um thing good the eyes maybe to Maybe to Like watch something on tv like that's on Ramadan like something. Oh, that's good. You see that's good You could that would be a good thing and like with your mouth should you be talking all Perfect all the time or should you like read Quran or be quiet? What do you think's the better thing to do with your mouth? You try to be quiet What if you are good idea? Would you be like arguing? Horrible I have been calling You what you having comments? What is your comment? uh I just can't wait until Ramadan You want to fast all right? You want to start fasting now? Yeah You can there are two days a week some people fast So why don't you try to fast part of a day and do all of these things in your fast? That would be fantastic That would be great practice. All right I'm by looking at a beautiful water fountain You know That is so beautiful. What you've just said is so I can't even tell you Fast your eyes by looking at a waterfall. That makes me cry. That's so beautiful What you who said that that's really great. What's your name? Uh, Ibrahim I said that Oh, Ibrahim said that how lovely now if you if you were bragging bragging or gossiping wouldn't that be Be beneath your inner dignity to brag or gossip or are arguing Ramadan. Wouldn't that be horrible? horrible, right Yeah, that would be horrible Well, okay, there's there's something I've got to tell you, you know, um This is a terrible story Well, yeah, this is a hadith In the life of the prophet peace and blessings be upon him There were two ladies And they came up to him and they said we are old and frail and weak We would like your permission to break our fast in Ramadan And he handed them a bowl and he said You've already broken your bath baths. Take this bowl and throw up in it And all these people were standing around looking and they went, uh, and you know what came out? pieces of flesh and blood Because they had been gossiping and you remember from the book of knowledge If you talk a back a back bite behind someone's back talk about somebody Badly or behind their back The Quran says it's the same as eating their dead flesh So these women and this is a true story a true hadith of the prophet peace and blessings be upon him He told them to do that and everyone saw it So certainly you wouldn't want to gossip during ever ever anyway But if you did it if you gossiped and talk badly about someone during Ramadan, you broke your fast You lost the day So you no one will do that. You would never do that. Would you I mean you'd never do it anyway. All right Oh, by the way children, um Now let's see And we come to the end the three levels. Oh, we've done the three levels of fasting. Okay And okay, the next thing is If you if you if you're if you're hearing gossip you wouldn't listen to that Would you would you run away if somebody talks badly, right? and also With your feet and hands don't yeah beds. Don't do bad things because that will Break your fast if you're if you're trying the inner special way If you're one of the special people and actually don't let your feet take you to terrible places. All right now Don't forget when you break your fast. What do you break it with? dates That's right. Now this also do the Hari or whatever that was. Oh, that's that sounds delicious I'd love to hear about this. We fill out dates for some with stuff Oh, yeah Well, let me tell you something Now this is now. I don't know how your Ramadan's have gone But Imam al-Ghazali tells you Don't eat a huge amount of food. Don't make up all the food you've missed say you're having dinner Have dinner, but don't make up lunch and breakfast. Don't pile it all in Because what we're trying to improve our souls You know and not just be all day long thinking about special treats and desserts and no no we're trying to Stop thinking about all this worldly stuff and the spirit of fasting the spirit of when you're fast Is you want to be a little weak, right? You want to reduce your energy, right? It helps you feel more spiritual inside rather than the sort of a go-gettering attitude And like don't sleep all day Some people sleep Yeah, no, you don't want to do that because part of Ramadan I would do that instead of Doing pe class Oh, that's good. And if you've had if you're in school you need to rest But there's some people who during Ramadan they stay awake the whole night Eating and having a good time Yeah, he makes us one of the hardest stretches Oh, he does Well, I'm very proud of you, you know And also, you know, if you go to play that pray the terra wea prayer with your parents And you're feeling a little weak you'll feel very spiritual if you're all stuffed with food You you won't feel you'll just feel heavy and also It's it's like if it were the night of power, you know If you were there for the leilatul qadr and you were stuffed with food It says that if you're slightly empty You might even be able to see the heavenly dominion on the on the leilatul qadr And and ghazali said something. Have you ever seen a horse? That here's the horse's face and they put a bag on it and and it's eating out of a feeding bag It's hanging down and it's got hay in it. Have any of you ever seen that a feeding bag on a horse pretty so no Well, they they have I like horses and I've seen one before when When I really want to go to a horse riding school and I went to one. Oh, well, you're horse ride Yeah, I think but I I uh Petted the horses there and I saw them um Don't you love horses. They're so beautiful, but I did not see a single horse eating. Okay. Well ghazali said Whoever places a feed bag between his heart and his breast Will be veiled from deeper truths. He's saying that people who have Eating eating eating they they've separated themselves from their heart He said lots of food keeps us thinking about the world And it you want to be light you want to lighten yourself And also don't forget when you break your fast have your water and dates And he won't and very important ghazali says when you're breaking your fast This is something very important Be in a state of fear and hope Hoping that your fast was good all day long and you didn't mess it up and afraid. Oh my goodness Even if you think you did a good job, you're afraid you might have messed up If you don't want to think I did a perfect fast you The thing is you'll want to be humble when you're breaking your fast, right and then Um, look at these children and he the prophet peace and blessings be upon him recited a law's words The prophet placed his hands on his ears and his eyes and he said hearing is a trust And sight is a trust The children put their hands over their ears and their eyes Feeling these were precious gifts your sight and your hearing are trusts So you these are given Given to you by a law as a sacred trust And so you don't want to mess them up or abuse them You don't want to listen to bad stuff or see bad stuff. You'd never do that, would you right? Now this is interesting The goal of fasting and this is very we're at the end. This is very hard for you to understand But i'm gonna say it anyway The goal of fasting Is you're supposed to take on one of the qualities of a law and that one is In fasting He is the everlasting independent samadhiya. Does god need anything or he needs nothing? Does god need anything or he doesn't need anything? Nothing nothing. He has everything so He needs something like nothing to listen to karan Well, he likes us to He likes us to recite karan. Those are his words But a fasting person should imitate the angels as much as possible Because the angels don't want or need anything anything at all and they're the nearest to a law so so what we try to do is Not be so needy, you know be content with what we have so children what i'd like to say Is oh you see here here's this little girl This inner practice she's not Eating lots and lots of food that increase the body's pleasure and strength the spirit of fasting is to weaken the body's energy By taking less food. So look she's not having tons and tons of stuff. Is she look at her? She's having a correct simple humble meal. So what I wanted to end by telling you all here is hajj Abdullah, right? I want you all to Really think about your golden hearts every minute of the day all of these ideas Keep them alive every minute. There's a chance to polish it every second you have a way you can polish your heart You can be smiling you can give something you can listen to the right thing You can do the right thing. So the children. This is the end Here's hajj abdulla the children were deeply relieved to have been introduced to the inner meanings The kernels inside the outer husks the beautiful forms of their faith hajj abdulla's last words were Oh youth. He's talking to you children. Oh youth Know that you are in charge of your own hearts children parents We're all in charge of our own hearts, right? And as he slowly disappeared between the trees The little boy abu bhakar said now we know what to do and why so children Parents me We've listened to all ghazali and we have all these wonderful things. We know what to do and we know why to do them So let's start doing them bit by bit. All right And next Next week, we're we're gonna do all right. We're we all promise We all promise All right Next week is next week is the hajj and it's really fun some children going on the hajj And then afterward we do the hajj The pilgrimage the hajj every year the muslims you're gonna find out next week Oh like like we go to umrah Yes, exactly. You're right. That's the smaller pilgrimage But you're gonna you know what you're gonna learn all the secrets of the umrah next time Isn't it like a long ago? It is it's it's it's an extension The beginning of the hajj is like umrah and then you go on to to to mount our uh our Anyway to uh you go out to the plane Of mount era Arafat era fat. Yeah, what was I thinking? Uh, I forgot. Anyway, so we're gonna do that In the final vinyl session, we're gonna have a magical thing on all the things we believe You know what is in our heart what we believe in it's going to be so much fun So, you know what I've kept you up 17 minutes later than you're supposed to And I know you all want to go to bed, but I want to go to bed So I love you all and I thought your questions today Were wonderful and your answers And I just can't believe that you can be as young as you are and you're so smart Annie. Thank you. Mashallah. Mashallah. Asalaamu alaikum everyone Asalaamu alaikum Oh