 وَأَقُولُوا فِي القُرْآنِ مَا جَاءَتْ بِهِ آيَاتُوهُ فَهُوَ الْكَارِيمُ الْمُنْزَالُونَ وَأَقُولُوا قَالَ اللَّهُ جَلَّ جَلَالُوهُ وَالْمُصْطَافَ الْهَاديِ وَلَا أَتْ أَوْوَالُونَ الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل واشدوا الله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له واشدوا النسييدنا ونبينا محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد إن شاء الله تعالى في هذا القرار I'm going to insha'Allah تعالى point out and discuss بإبني الله الكريب the heading الصيام عبادة وليس عادة that the fasting is an act of worship and it's not a norm I want us to all understand this point this is very important many Muslims around the world believe fasting is a cultural thing believe this is a cultural thing we've been doing this for decades and centuries and this is part of our culture so you tend to find people are not practicing the religion we'll be fasting this month all because it's the culture and it's the norms of these people what we really have to understand is fasting isn't an act it's not a cultural thing it's an act of worship it's a obligatory act and if we don't feel this that it's an act of worship it will mess up our intentions and we won't get rewarded for it the person has to intend this act as a worship if you do an act as a norms there is no reward for you and this is missed by many people the scholars they talk about the concept of قصد قصد means to intend something it's to intend to do something to have an intention of something the scholars they divide the قصد into two when the قصد they divide it into two they say قصد المعبود and the second one is قصد العبادة قصد المعبود means who are you doing this action for who are you doing this action for and that's the one that the scholars refer to as خلاص and that's not what we're talking about now the second type of قصد is قصد العبادة that you intend to do an عبادة and what you're intending is not a norms you're intending an عبادة and this happens in two ways to distinguish one عبادة from another عبادة or to distinguish عبادة from a norms a custom of the people to distinguish one عبادة from another عبادة for example might be distinguishing the fasting of رمضان from fasting Mondays and Thursdays you have to distinguish the intention so that's distinguishing one عبادة from another عبادة distinguishing a norms from عبادة for example maybe someone who loves to shower every morning he just loves to shower every morning now he wakes up one morning and there is a جنابة major impurity that happened to him he now has to distinguish with his intention is this going to be the norm of shower I used to have every morning or is this going to be the وصل الشرعي that the شريعة لاجتها which is an act of worship am I going to do it as an act of worship or am I going to do it as my norms this is distinguishing the عبادة from an عادة we have to as Muslims know that fasting is عبادة and that's the intention that we need to come with and that's why when you look at the Hadith of Qudsi الله عزي و جله He said يترك طعامه و شرابه و شهوته من أجلي he leaves off eating and he also leaves off drinking and he also leaves off sexual intercourse for my sake so you're leaving off eating and drinking and you leave off your sexually fulfilling yourself all because of الله سبحانه وتعالى من أجلي and that's what we want to understand that you're doing it as an act of worship و لذلك عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله تعالى عنه He said ليس الصيام من الطعام والشراب وحده that fasting is not just to be fasting from and to abstain from drinking and eating that's not what it is only ولكنه من الكذب والباطل واللغوي والحالف but rather it is to abstain from lying falsehood, idle speech, swearing and you stay away from all of that ليس الصيام من الطعام والشراب وحده ولكنه من الكذب والباطل واللغوي والحالف so many people all they know about fasting is don't eat food, don't drink don't have sexual intercourse but they lie, they cheat, they deceive, idle speech وما إلى ذلك this is a person who hasn't understood fasting fasting is more than staying away from food and drinking rather ليمول ملو مهرانين he said أهوان الصيامي أصيامه عن الطعامي the easiest form of fasting is to actually fast from food that's the easiest form of fasting يعني to stay away from food is the easiest one it's harder to stay away from lying, cheating and deceiving and desires and holding yourself back and reframing from anything that the Sharia has prohibited you from that's the hardest form so fasting is an act of worship you're in an عبادة every moment you're fasting ولداركة the reward for the person and to receive this reward يعني to be forgiven for your past sins you have to be doing it as a faith, as an Eman not an adai, it can't be a noom that's why the Prophet ﷺ he said إن حديت ألمام البخاري المسلم both narrated من حديت أبي هوريرا منصام رمضان إيمانا وحتسابا وفر له ما تقدم من دنبي anyone who fasts Ramadan with two things إيمانا faith وحتسابا hoping reward from الله سبحانه وتعالى then and only then does Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive you for your past sins بنده يا your fasting is done based on Eman you're doing this for Allah سبحانه وتعالى إن تصديق you believe in Him سبحانه وتعالى the second one is you're hoping reward from Him سبحانه وتعالى with those two your sins will be forgiven you can't just be doing it because everybody in the local area is doing it if I don't do it everyone else is going to look at me in a bad way no you have to come with an intention and we as Muslims many of us don't understand the value and the importance of a good intention عبد الله المبارك He said رب عمل صغير to عظيمه النية ورب عمل كبير to صغيره النية maybe a small action that you did what magnifies it is an intention that you came with it يعني the action is very little but what made this big is an intention you came with the intention magnified it ورب عمل كبير and sometimes you could be doing a big action a lot of actions to صغيره النية the intention لسنه and reduces it it gets reduced only because of your intention so we have to understand where and how far the intention can reach just sitting down and thinking and having that intention that you're an act of worship it can change everything and the fact that you just believe this is a cultural thing my people and we as we've been doing this all our lives I'm going to do that with my family and we're going to do it as a collective thing you don't get anything from it and you lose out and a person سبحان الله تعالى تعالى allows them to reach somewhere far all because of their intention محمد من الحسين he said ينبغي للرجل أن تكون نيته بين يدي عملي he said رحمه الله it is required from a man or a woman that their intention surpasses their action يعني your intention goes beyond and above your actions think of something deeply before you even engage in it have an intention set prior to you engaging in that particular action so you can get rewarded greatly تابت البناني he said نية المؤمن قبل ومن عمله that the person's actions sorry the person's intentions the person's intention is far than the person's actions the person's intention goes beyond and above his actions يعني we know a group of people who may not be able to do an action with us but because they had the intention they reached us in that reward the Prophet told us in many Ahadiths when he said to the companions صلى الله عليه وسلم إن في المدينة لرجالة in the city there are men ما سرتم مسيرا ولا قطعتموا ديه you guys have not moved the distance you have not cut a valley إلا كانوا معكم except that they are with you in reward in the city there are some of your brothers they are not here with you right now they are not cut in the distance they are not going under the valleys they are not going through the hardships that you guys are going through but they are participating with you in reward يعني how? they are in Medina they are not with us and this is the battle of Tabuk صحابة they walked 1400 km تقريبا and they are told that there are people in Medina who are not doing anything but they have the same reward as them how? the reason is because they are intention they want to be with their brothers they want to be walking with them they want to participate in the battle with them like what happened to them حبسهم المرم what imprisoned them and prevented them from doing his sickness and illness they had the intention their intention reached far than that which their actions couldn't reach so it's important that the month of Ramadan is coming we set our priority straight we know why we are doing it and who we are doing it for we are not doing it because it's a time to socialise with our cousins and our relatives and to break iftar with them those are other things the real core reason for is الله سبحانه وتعالى جنة we want and we want us from Allah سبحانه وتعالى that He distanced us from the Hellfire we are doing it because it's an act of worship that Allah تعالى و تعالى prescribed upon us and ordained upon us that we must do I'm going to stop there إن شاء الله وتعالى for today's episode anything that I might have said that was wrong or incorrect is from me as shaytan and that Allah has messaged I'm free from it سبحانك الله من بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله أستغفرك أتوبه السلام عليكم if you're enjoying these videos and you'd like to keep up to date with all of the courses we're going to be running make sure you head over to amauathome.com