 Allahumma salli ala Muhammad wa ala Muhammad wa aajj al farajahum wa ala na'ada'ahum Brothers and sisters, As-salamu alaikum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Continuing on with the discussion of the intention of one's fast, if you have any questions, if a non-Muslim for example, and this in many cases, is a commonly asked question, if a non-Muslim embraces Islam during the holy month of Ramadan, that means he or she is now obliged to perform the obligatory fast because he or she is now a Muslim they are what we say, they are obligatory fasts. That means he or she is now obliged to perform the obligatory fast because he or she is now a Muslim. They are what we say when we talk usul or fiqh, they are mokhaatabeen, they are now ordered by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to fast. They are obliged to undertake the wajib actions, whether it's prayers or fasting or what have you. If a Muslim embraces Islam during the holy month of Ramadhan, that means he or she is now obliged to fast the holy month. Okay. So how do we calculate the amount of fast they must make up? First of all, generally, al-Islam yajubbu ma qablah. One when one converts and embraces Islam, Islam erases all before it. So everything before they became a Muslim, be it prayers, be it fasting, be it khoms, be it zakat, be it hajj is now erased. We begin calculating and we begin counting from the time they became a Muslim. Secondly, if one embraces Islam at the time of noon prayers, for example. If one embraces Islam at the time of noon prayers or just before noon prayers, they make their intention to fast provided they have not, for example, eaten or drink or done any mufattarat, undertaken any mufattarat, anything which makes their fast void. They make their intention and they begin their fast from there, from noon prayers as a precaution. If, for example, no, they converted to Islam after noon prayers, they converted to Islam at 3.30 in the afternoon. They continue their day as per usual and they begin their fast. Of course, it is mustahab and in some cases even more than mustahab to refrain from eating and drinking. I'll get back to that as in due date or in due course, insha'Allah, as time comes. But they may continue their fast, making their intention at adhan al-dhuhr. And that is on the base of obligatory precaution, as I said. And if he or she does not observe the fast on that day, they must make up its qabaa, that is at the time of dhuhr. After dhuhr, insha'Allah, as a recommended precaution, they must make up their fast. If somebody is ill and recovers from their illness before midday, before adhan al-dhuhr, during the holy month of Ramadan, he or she has not, if he or she has not undertaken a mufattir, eaten, drank, travelled, for example, lied, kathib, Allah, Allah, Rasulah, made false claims to Allah and the ahlu al-bayt, a.s. Then they must continue their fast from there. They should renew their intention and to fast, continue their fast that day. But if their recovery is not, it's after adhan al-dhuhr. Same rule in your prize. If their recovery is after adhan al-dhuhr, it is not obligatory for them to fast on that day due to the hesitation in their intention. Now the hesitation in someone's intention plays a big role in the course of our fasting or any of our hibadat, any of our worship. One must, when it comes to fasting, his intention must be smooth and steady. One must not have a shaky intention. For example, if I am to come home from work, for example, and I say, if my wife's made lunch, I will break my fast. If she hasn't made lunch, I'll continue fasting there. My intentions become a bit shaky. Scholars say once your intention becomes shaky, you are then deemed, your fast is then deemed void. It is then, baltil. One must try to refrain from shaking his intention and remain with a firm and a steady intention. Yawm al-Shak, or the Day of Uncertainty, has a very unique hokum, has a very unique ruling. We mentioned previously part of the ruling of Yawm al-Shak. It goes like this, if somebody for some reason is in doubt whether or not it is the first day of Shahr Ramadhan or the last day of Shahr Shaaban. For example, in the West. In the West, when I was growing up, on several occasions, this happened, where there was no Wukala'a Marajah offices of the Marajah. There was not many scholars, for example, who participated in the moon sighting. And on many occasions, we would fast half the day of Eid, not knowing whether it was Eid or not, until someone at midday said it was Eid. And even on the first day of Shahr Ramadhan, the same concept applied. According to the ruling of Ayatullah Sistani, it is not obligatory for them to fast on Yawm al-Shak. If however, somebody wants to observe the fasting on Yawm al-Shak in particular, he can do so with the intention of, he cannot do so with the intention of Shahr Ramadhan. He can't say, I'm gonna fast, Yallah, this intention for Shahr Ramadhan. He does not know for a fact that it is Shahr Ramadhan. The intention on the day is made in one of two ways. The Yawm al-Shak, on the day of uncertainty, it is made, one must make his intention in one of two ways. One, number one, to have the intention that if it is the day of Shahr, the first of Shahr Ramadhan, then, Yallah, I am fasting my obligatory fast. And if it is not, then I am fasting a mustahab, a recommended fast or a qadhaq fast. This is one way. A second, to make the sole intention of either make up or make up a qadhaq fast or a recommended fast, a mustahab fast. And if it so happens to be Shahr Ramadhan to change his intention, and that is sufficient for that particular day. Now, if somebody is fasting on the day of uncertainty, Yawm al-Shak, another ruling, and learns during that day that it is indeed the first of Shahr Ramadhan. He is fasting out of one of these two ways. He says, I am fasting a mustahab fast. And then he finds out it is Yawm al-Shak. He finds out it is the first of Shahr Ramadhan, for example. He or she should convert their intention and continue their fast as per usual. Insha'Allah, their fasts are deemed valid. Somebody is uncertain or undecided in their intention. They have a shaky intention, whether to break his fast or not. And it is the day of Shahr Ramadhan. So he decides to break his fast. I mentioned part of this hukum earlier, I'll go into a bit more detail. He decides to break his fast. So he heads, for example, towards the kitchen, then immediately changes his intention back to fasting. In both cases, his fast is deemed invalid and void. Why? Because the person's intention is no longer stable and one must maintain one of the main conditions, maintain the condition of a stable intention of fasting throughout the day of Shahr Ramadhan. Okay. So there are three types of fasts. In general, when someone is fasting, there are three types of fasts. Fast number one is the obligatory, wajib fast, either the fast of Shahr Ramadhan, or one must, one may make, is able to make a fast wajib upon himself, obligatory upon himself. How? For example, my son is sick and his mustahab to do this, the Ahl-e-Bait, Al-Imsalam did this. Ya Allah, if you cure my son, I will fast for three consecutive days, a nether, a vau, Lillahi-Alayya, if you can, the Lillahi-Alayya is the term that must be used when making the nether. If you cure my son, Ya Allah, I will fast for three consecutive days. That's the obligatory fast. That fast then becomes obligatory upon you and you must fast it as soon as possible. That is the obligatory fast. Number two is the Qadhaat fasts, the makeup fasts. Any fast that is wajib upon you that you do not fast, you must make it up in your lifetime and must take a farah accordingly. Number three is the mustahab, the recommended fasts. And it is recommended to fast generally whenever. But the mustahabness or the istihbab grows and climaxes more and more when, on particular dates like the 15th of Sha'ban, the 15th of, for example, Rajab on Thursdays on the middle of the month, they are the three types of mustahab, they are the three types of fasts. Now, there are intention deadlines, we mentioned also earlier, I'll go into a bit more detail now. There are intention deadlines for these three fasts. When one is fasting an obligatory fast, he must make his intention before Adhan al-Fajr, before dawn, the Adhan of dawn, they call the prayers of dawn, one must make his intention. If no, for example, he's fasting a Qadaa fast. Scholars say that he is able to make his intention before Adhan al-Fajr, any time before the call to prayer of noon, on the basis that he has not committed any act which invalidates his fast. If his fast is mustahab, as I mentioned, one must, one is able to make his intention of Siyam all the way through to Adhan al-Maghrib, even if it's one minute before the call to prayers of the evening or dusk, that is fine, there is no issue in that. Insha'Allah, we'll continue without discussion in the coming episodes. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.