 Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala states in the Holy Quran Bismillah Al Rahman Al Raheem Oh you who believe fasting has been prescribed upon you Just as it has been prescribed on those before you So that you may achieve piety There is no month in the Muslim world more special than the month of Ramadan The month of mercy the month of compassion The month in which the gates of mercy are open to us and the Almighty God showers us With His Rahmah with His forgiveness with His compassion Just hearing the word Ramadan opens your heart It generates a feeling of peace in your heart A feeling of serenity tranquility Hearing the month of Ramadan the word itself gives you hope It reminds you of forgiveness that in this holy month Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will forgive our sins In fact as one hadith states One of the meanings of Ramadan Is that it devours your sins Just like fire devours wood The month of Ramadan devours our sins It purifies us from our sins It's a beautiful month in which you see people are very excited They are eager to be the guests of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in this holy month You get flooded with messages text messages, WhatsApp messages from all over the world People congratulating you Sharing their excitement about this holy month In fact there are some people you have probably not heard from for six months for a year But when it comes to the night of Ramadan you'll get a message from them Congratulating you on this month It's truly a special occasion It's a special gift that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given this ummah The month of Ramadan offers many benefits One very important benefit that the month of Ramadan offers to us Is that it gives us a break from our daily routine For many people You find that they need a break from their daily life From their daily routine Why is it that people love vacations? Don't we all love to vacation? Why? Of course you have fun obviously You do a lot of activities when you go on a vacation But one primary reason is because it gives you a break From your daily routine That's why millions of Americans Canadians in every country Around the world You find people looking forward to that vacation They'll work hard six months And they have that vacation in their sight Waiting day by day for the time to come So they can go travel and enjoy their vacation That's because a vacation offers you a break From your daily routine Because having a daily routine sometimes becomes stressful You feel like you're a robot So you take that break What does that break do to you? It energizes you It refreshes you That's why we all love it Because it's so refreshing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the month of Ramadan Gives you an amazing vacation At all levels if you really look at it Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala first of all gives you a break physically We're addicted to all these foods around us Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives you a break Give your digestive system a break Be mindful of what you eat So physically We see that the month of Ramadan gives us a break From our daily routine of having those three meals And then those three snacks in between It presents you a break That in itself is healthy The holy month of Ramadan is also a social vacation for many people You meet people in the month of Ramadan You don't see really throughout the year You see them very rarely But in the month of Ramadan Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given us this opportunity To meet friends To meet family members To socialize This in itself refreshes our minds and souls Spiritually it's also a vacation for us In this holy month We take some time to reconnect with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Believe me there are many people throughout the year They're disconnected from their Lord From their Creator Especially from the Holy Quran There are people who will only read the Quran In the month of Ramadan That gives you an opportunity to spiritually elevate yourself Now the fourth type of break or opportunity That the holy month of Ramadan presents Is one that is extremely important The holy month of Ramadan Offers us an opportunity, a moral Ethical opportunity To develop our moral character And to work on our habits To develop good habits And to get rid of bad habits This is something that we can achieve in the month of Ramadan It's the perfect time For us to work on our character To work on our moral standards On our personality traits There is no time More conducive More appropriate More effective To work on your personality traits Than the month of Ramadan And that's the beauty of the religion of Islam You see that in the religion of Islam Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us A schedule That really allows you to break from a daily routine So you can always refresh yourself You always energize yourself Even simple matters like the timings of prayer The timings of our Salah shift right Every few days you notice a 10 minute shift A 15 minute shift And the winter for instance You have Maghrib at around 5 p.m And then every few days you notice A significant shift A 15 minute shift A 30 minute shift Now the question is why Why would Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala do that Why can't He keep the times of Salah consistent Shouldn't they be consistent Doesn't it make sense For the timings of prayer to be consistent Why do you go through these shifts throughout the year There are many benefits to that But one benefit brothers and sisters Is to help you break from that daily routine Believers who are mindful of their Salah Are those who organize their schedule Around the timings of Salah How many of us do that When the next year is coming up And you're creating your schedule You're organizing your plans Do you think of the timings of Salah That's the last thing we think of right But those people who have a special relationship with God And they're so mindful of their Salah actually When they're creating their schedule They look at the times of Salah What am I doing at the times of Salah Do I make some time for my prayer You know if you just do that How you will interact with your prayer You'll take prayer so much more seriously You will find prayer An exciting daily act As opposed to a burden that you have to get out of your way Make time for Salah Now the interesting thing about the timings of prayer Is that they constantly shift Now that could create a challenge You have to keep readjusting your schedule right That's actually a plus When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is having these times of prayer change The Almighty God is inviting you every few days Evaluate your schedule Evaluate your priorities Because now that let's say prayer After it was at 5pm in the winter It becomes 5.30 Now you have an extra 30 minutes before prayer What should you do What can you squeeze in Now you have to think of your priorities It seems that every single day Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling the human being Reflect on your schedule Are you using your time wisely What are your priorities And the times of prayer Are an invitation A daily invitation for us to rethink our priorities Are you doing that which is right Or you're just stuck with a bad schedule Because there are some people who develop a schedule for themselves And then they get stuck with it throughout the whole year And it's a bad schedule It's not a productive one Even the times of salah brothers and sisters Invite you to rethink your schedule Is this schedule working for you Make adjustments What's important If something is important give it priority If it's not Scrap it from your schedule The times of salah by having them shift and change They teach us time management And that's from the beautiful system of the religion of Islam You know many people especially these days They really think they're busy I remember a few months ago I was at a retreat And this one this young man He shared his experience with time management He said I considered myself to be very very busy I really thought I did not have the time to think I did not have a single minute of free time Until I heard a speech on time management And this is what I did At the retreat we gave them some practical steps To effectively manage their time those youth And then we met them two three weeks later To check on their progress So two three weeks later when we met with him He said after carefully examining my schedule I actually started to track what I would do How did I spend my time I would make a list of all the activities that I would do And how much time they would take He said I thought I was the busiest person on earth I really didn't have time to scratch my head But upon examining my schedule And actually writing it down on paper And keeping track of what I do I realized that I have five hours of free time every day Five hours of free time that I was wasting I honestly wasn't doing anything You know that extra free time that you have in between programs It's in between work, errands to run, other activities He said five hours every single day I was wasting but I was not aware of that The times of Salah When you become mindful of them And this is why it's so recommended to pray right on time Some people say why? What's this obsession with praying right on time When I can pray between the heart and sunset let's say What's that obsession? Praying on time brothers and sisters teaches you to manage your time properly It teaches you to evaluate your schedule To organize your schedule every single day And to always evaluate your priorities And this is from the Rahmah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So we see even with the times of prayer Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us an opportunity to break from our daily routine