 I seek salvation from Satan the accursed. My dearest brothers and sisters, viewers from all across the world, may peace, blessings and protection of Allah be with you at all times. I would like to remind you to join us on social media, on Twitter using the hashtag IHTVRamadan, on Facebook, Instagram and on YouTube, InshaAllah, where this show will be uploaded tomorrow. I want to start the show by using a quote, a saying from Amirul Mahmuneen, where he says, the person who does not follow their desires will be free. This is so important because in this world that we live in, we're born to be free, yet we shackle down by our own lusts and desires, our own worldly materialistic wants. InshaAllah, if we can shackle ourselves or if we can free the shackles of these chains, we can prosper in life. InshaAllah, in today's episode for spiritual refinement, I want to talk about a specific thing which is very close to my heart. InshaAllah, I hope that by listening to this, I hope that you get inspired and that you can also pay special heed to this specific topic and that is service to the Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam. The things I want to talk about is number one, the sacrifice of the Ahlul Bayt have given for us and why service is important to them. Number two, ways in which we can serve and number three, for those who serve, how to behave, intentions, humility and also how to reflect the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt through your own actions. Firstly, with the service of the Ahlul Bayt, when we look at the history of the Aima al-Tahireen, we see that throughout their lives, they've always been thinking of us, they've been sacrificing not only for the religion of Islam, but for the Shia, but also for humanity as a whole, for people, for society as a whole. It is said that without the sacrifices, especially when we look at Karbala and the Day of Ashura, without the sacrifices that the Imams have given for us, the very fabric of social being, the very fabric of morals and ethics, the foundation of principles and good values would not exist, the foundations of humanity would not exist. So the Imams have sacrificed everything for our freedom, but the beauty of our society, the beauty of our community rather, and the Shia communities, that we sacrifice everything we have back for them. And that is the reason why we've been sent on this planet. I firmly believe that as a community, we are specifically born to serve the Ahlul Bayt. Inshallah, I'll talk about ways in which we can serve later on in this segment. When we talk about service, firstly the most important thing is intention. It is important that as an individual, when you're born and when you're brought up, your parents tell you about the Ahlul Bayt. And when you have such a strong connection to them, their life becomes your life. When you wake up, you think about them. As you go through the day, you think about them. When you sleep, you think about them. Your intentions, your love, your heart, your soul, your goals become them. And when you get to that stage, service is an inevitability, not a chore. And as a result, when you're serving them, you don't think about other people and what they think of you. You don't think about what other people are doing to serve. You serve in your own way. I just want to remind you that Allah SWT has blessed every single one of us with a specific potential. He's given us his mercy. He's given a special strength. He has given us weaknesses as well. But the reason for that is that he wants to live up to your strengths and to build on your potential. Every human being is different. Some human beings have strengths in specific areas. We see that service of the Ahlul Bayt doesn't just exist in one particular form. You today, you're watching this TV channel. The work that goes behind producing this show is unbelievable. It's uncomprehensible. It's unfathomable. When I look around, I see so many different people doing so many different jobs and all of them have one goal, one aim in mind. And that's the sincerity and the love for the Ahlul Bayt, alayhum salam. Now, when we talk about service, we talk about things like people who have specific qualities in specific areas. When I look at the people around me today, and I see the people that are making the show, the people who are very good in editing, very good with computers. And their job is to edit people who are very talented as cameraman and as photographers. Their job is to take the cameras, so to take the footage. I, because I can present, I've been sitting here presenting the show. And that's my service. However, there's people who do things like make the tea, people who are there to comfort you, to bring you things like food. Even their service is accepted by the Ahlul Bayt because they're doing their bit as much as they can for this service and for the spreading of the message and the mission of Islam. Similarly, when we go into the centers, the Hussainiyahs, the Imam Barghaz, we look at people and how they do their service in different ways. We look at people as we enter the mosque who maybe hold the door open for us. Don't forget this is a service for the Ahlul Bayt as well. To give comfort to the servants and to the loves of the Ahlul Bayt is a service in itself. We see people who pile the shoes and stack the shoes on the shelves. That service. We see people who hoover the floors. That service. We see people who hand out the drinks, the water, the tea. That service. We see people who climb on the pulpit and deliver the Majalis. That service. We see the Raadud who perform and who recite the Latsamiyads or who recite the Nashid. That is service. We see the community members, the committee members, the presidents of the centers, the people that try and make sure that the center runs financially. They make sure the center runs economically and viably. That they make sure that the lights are on. They make sure that there's heating in the centers. Their servants. Every single one of these people is playing their role based on their strengths, based on what they can do. So as a servant there's a few things that you have to be aware of which I'll come on to in a bit. But one thing to remember is that Allah SWT has given you a specific goal in life and because of that goal he's given you a potential. Now because he's given you that it is up to you to live up to that potential. That potential includes serving the Ahlul Bayt. If you don't live up to this potential that Allah has given you as a mercy don't forget that you're answerable on the day of judgment for that. Because wastage of time and opportunity is also, we say asraf when we talk about food, but it's also another form of wastage. And you're answerable to Allah SWT for that. Next I want to go on to the mindset, the intentions of the servants of the Ahlul Bayt. As a reciter myself and someone who also does other things to try and serve the Ahlul Bayt. As a doctor I try and help people who are going on Ziyara for example. Help with charities. I'm often for some reason given a lot of praise and I do not feel myself praiseworthy at all. And generally I feel that's the mindset that we should be in. Because we've been given specific roles in life. We've been given special strength as a result of the roles we've been assigned. And each one of us should try and live up to those roles. Just because you're in the public eye for example you're a reciter or you recite Majalis doesn't make you any more superior than the next person. It just means that you're doing your bit of service. The person who stacks the shoes in the mosques is just as valuable as you are as a reciter as someone who recites Majalis. The person who's behind the scenes and fixes the sound so that you can have your voice heard is just as important as you are. And as a president if you find yourself thinking that you're more superior than the rest of the community members surely you should not have this mindset. The people that hoover the floors in the mosque that make that mosque somewhere where people want to come into are just as valuable as you are. Have a mindset which makes you humble. A mindset which makes you feel your value. Your value is number one you are valuable because you're serving the Ahlul Bayt but number two you're serving them because you've been given that goal. I also want to talk a little bit about the specific ways in which we can serve insha'Allah in a bit. Therefore as I've said before service can exist in many facets in many different ways and as human beings as the servants of the Ahlul Bayt as the Shi'a our job is to endeavor to try and meet our goals, meet our potential. We should always have aspirations and ambitions to try and serve the best we can but at the same time be humble. The way we do that is by constantly remembering the sacrifice of the Ahlul Bayt for us. Through their sacrifice they haven't asked to cry for them and mourn for them. Through their sacrifice they've given us the gift of freedom and that gift of freedom we should try and express in the way we do our day-to-day activities and run our day-to-day lives and through that freedom we should try and serve them. In our daily lives we should not try and get chained down by the day-to-day rigmaroles and the day-to-day rigors of life because having lures towards materialistic things, following the worldly path chains us down. This gift of freedom that we have from the Ahlul Bayt becomes nothing anymore when you're chained down by the worldly needs and worldly desires. So that's the first thing. Remember the Ahlul Bayt very clearly and constantly. Remember the sacrifices for you. Number two do not get lured by the worldly demands or worldly desires that you have because they act as a distraction. Number three always have the sincerity in your mind. Always remember that as a servant of the Ahlul Bayt no matter what you do you're only fulfilling your potential. You're nothing but a mere servant whether you're a reciter or someone who recites Majalis whether you're someone who dishes out the food or serves the tea or gives the water or someone who stacks the shoes or just holds the door open. You're doing your service. Never forget that. Never become proud. Never show arrogance. Always show humility and inshallah if we do that we can become better servants of the Ahlul Bayt and we can become better human beings and therefore as a society we can improve ourselves and perfect ourselves ready for the reappearance of our awaited Imam, alayhi salam. The holy prophet Muhammad may he have appeased some blessings of Allah 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. Through these episodes as we go from place to place around the world we experience the ways that different people from different backgrounds from different parts of the world prepare for the month of Ramadan. Inshallah today I want to take a trip to the big apple. It's known as a city that never sleeps. It's New York City which is located on the east coast of the United States of America. Now New York City is one of the largest cities in the USA as well as being a very big metropolitan city. There is also a large Muslim population there. A Muslim population that comes from several different backgrounds. You get the African population. There is the Indo-Pakistani population, the Iraqi population, the Iranian population and all of these different types of populations, these different races had their own centers. Obviously as the USA is not a Muslim country the holidays and the working life doesn't really change that much. So people still have to go to work, they still have to go to school and carry out their day-to-day activities as usual. However the way that it differs from the rest of the year is that the people in New York City based on the different backgrounds and different cultural traditions they go to the mosques in their own centers on a daily basis so they try to go to the mosques for the evenings, for the iftar time. They stay in the mosques, they have the iftar there and usually they'd have some majlis or majalis after which they'd have their dua and the a'mal if it's the a'mal nights. Obviously as the New York City is one of the biggest and one of the most beautiful metropolitan cities in the world you have places like Manhattan where there is fantastic things to see and fantastic things to do, good places to eat. The people of New York City tend to try and go out during the evenings to experience the city, to try and make use of the city. And then after that they come back home for their sahur and get ready for another day of fasting. InshaAllah we hope that you can also send in your videos your clips, your pictures, your blogs about how you prepare your day to day lives for the month of Ramadan, how you prepare work, how you prepare yourself for iftar, how you prepare yourself for the mosque and inshaAllah we hope to air these so that the rest of the world can see exactly what you do to prepare for this month and how people are diverse but all prepare for one cause, one goal and that is for the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem dearest Imam Hussein TV viewers Assalamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh May peace and blessings of Allah be upon each and every one of you Today we came to another market place in the holy city of Karbala to report to you the atmosphere of the holy city of Karbala stay tuned as we go and interview a few of the brothers here in the holy city of Karbala brothers and sisters I have one of the brothers here I will ask him a few questions Assalamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Can you introduce us to you and tell us about the Pakistani atmosphere in the city of Karbala My name is Hassan Ya Razzami from the city of Karbala I love the Iraqi people and the Islamic nation together and we have returned the great in this holy month May God bless us with good and blessings The Pakistani atmosphere especially in the city of Karbala the holy city of Sa'am Praise be to Allah that it is a spiritual atmosphere from the most supplications and visits and always the faithful of the city especially for the Friday night that is the Thursday night we have always more people we always have a lot of people Praise be to Allah the spiritual atmosphere is all beautiful and praise be to Allah especially God willing that it is accepted for us for the sake of the power it will be the most generous especially the memory of Karbala and the memory of Najaf which is in this holy month of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib peace be upon him Amir Mu'mineen Brother, Mohsani is congratulating you and the Islamic Ummah on the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan and he is saying that the atmosphere in the holy city of Karbala and especially during the holy month of Ramadan is so special it is full of spirituality and we have visitors from different countries as well as different provinces in Iraq and especially at the weekends the weekends we have more visitors can come from other provinces of Iraq to the holy city of Karbala and the city of Karbala is full of spirituality and all the visitors are busy with visiting the holy shrines of Imam al-Hussein and his brother Abel Fadl al-Abbas and especially that we are coming close to the nights of Al Qadr and the martyrdom of Imam al-Ali peace be upon him can you tell us about the nature of your work during the holy month of Ramadan Of course, the nature of the work during the holy month of Ramadan the first 10 days or 15 days of course the work is less because during the start of Ramadan and people do not come out little especially after the photo because in the morning the weather is all hot and the season is the same during the preparation of the photo and so on and so on people start visiting and spending the same time on the markets generally the prices are a bit higher in Ramadan so, it is always more like food products more than the clothes or other products so, this nature of the work during the holy month of Ramadan is like this I asked the brother about their job and what they do and whether it is been affected by the holy month of Ramadan or not he's saying that the first decade of the holy month of Ramadan since people don't come out of their houses and the weather is too hot especially during the day we don't have much visitors but the second and the last decade of the holy month of Ramadan we have so many visitors coming to the holy city of Karbala so, we can see that so many visitors come to do the Ziyara and after the Ziyara they come to these marketplaces to buy souvenirs and buy clothes for the age and especially when we get closer to the days of the age in today's episode as we go through the stages of life inshallah in this episode of the health tips and medical advice I want to talk about old age and the elderly within our communities I want to talk about number one the problems associated with old age number two the medical conditions associated with old age number three what we can do as a community for the elderly within our communities one of the biggest problems with old age is frailty and that's caused by degeneration of the human body over time so if you can imagine that their hearts and their lungs aren't what they once used to be the joints the muscles take due to the test of time degenerate and I've talked about arthritis in previous episode I will be talking about it in a future episode and as a result these joint problems and muscle problems make the old people they find them difficult to walk and elderly find it difficult to walk rather and they find it difficult to walk long distances and they get tired very quickly it's important to understand that and also with the elderly people as you can imagine the longer you live the more likely it is that you'll develop medical problems so they have a lot of other complex medical issues associated with the old age so it's important to appreciate that as a community as an as a society and also try and accommodate for that give them support and help when they need it talking about the elderly conditions that are more prevalent and illnesses that are more prevalent in older age are things like dementia dementia I've talked about in a previous episode but I think it's important as a community that we appreciate the effects of dementia and acknowledge that it's a condition that is getting more and more prevalent within our communities inshallah when we do that we can then start to address it secondly one of the conditions that affects the brain is something called Parkinson's disease it's a condition which is caused by damage to or degeneration of a part of the brain called the basal ganglia and this affects things like movement people with Parkinson's typically get symptoms like tremors they get rigidity of their muscles and they get slowing of the movements or the initiation of movements they find problems moving and walking they find problems writing and if you notice all of these then it's important that you see a GP because people who suffer from these can be treated with medication and with medication obviously their symptoms can subside other problems affecting the elderly are things like visual problems things like macular degeneration or cataracts and hearing problems as degeneration happens with the ears they get poorer hearing obviously with people who suffer from these problems it's important to see eye specialists of opticians and also it's important to see people who are specialists with hearing you can get treated with surgery for cataracts for example and treatment with hearing aids for hearing problems for example thereafter there are problems with the rest of the body so the main organs of the body things like the heart and the kidneys and the lungs and if you suffer from degeneration of these and worsening of these in terms of their function you can see a doctor and the doctor will keep an eye and you do regular checkups maybe once every six months maybe once every year and give you medications try and help with these elements of the body finally cancers are more prevalent in elderly people reason being is that in the elderly as time goes on and the body degenerates the cells of the body also degenerate and they're more prone to getting cancerous so things like prostate cancer in men lung cancer thyroid cancers and bowel cancers are more prevalent in the elderly population and therefore it's important to look out for the signs and the symptoms which may lead you or indicate that there is a problem going on so the symptoms include things like weight loss very large amounts of weight loss over a short period of time things like loss of appetite problems with color of the skins if someone's looking very pale and feeling tired all the time if you're getting all these symptoms and especially with bowel cancers if you find that you find blood in your stools or in lung cancer if you find that you find blood in your mucus when you're coughing up it's important to get these seen and see a doctor as soon as possible because even though the elderly population may be very frail and they have these problems it's not to say that they can't have an operation or they can't get these problems treated so the quicker you see them the quicker you act on them and the quicker that you treat them the better the prognosis is in the long term finally I just want to talk about what we can do as a community to try and help the elderly and also by helping the elderly we're helping ourselves so things like number one as a community I feel that because of the elderly within our population and those with mobility problems I think within our mosques and Husseinias within our centres we should have mobility aids there as they're just in case as a course of precaution in case there's someone who's old who doesn't have their walking stick with them or someone who's old and they're finding it difficult to mobilize around the mosque for example it's important to have some walking sticks and some frames they're just in case secondly I feel that as a community we need to acknowledge the problems associated with old age and I think we should try and have seminars and education sessions so we can educate the members of our community regarding those who are elderly and what we can do to help them thirdly I think one of the most important things for elderly people is social interaction if you imagine a lot of them are past retirement age so they sit at home whilst the rest of the family maybe go to work or go to school and they don't have people they can talk to so as a community I think we should introduce sessions or gatherings for the elderly I know in some communities they have something called senior citizens meetings where the elderly get together in these meetings they can have social interaction develop their interests with each other and thirdly if there's any problems that they have they can discuss it and problems can be flagged up very quickly fourth and lastly I want to just encourage members of our community the young the middle age to go and visit care homes to visit nursing homes to help the elderly in society not only the Muslims but also the non-Muslims that where we appreciate number one the problems associated with old age number two we give them social interaction something that the elderly actually crave number three it's not only good for them but it's good for us as well they have such a wealth of knowledge such experience that they can give us advice as well and number five I think with the elderly if we look after them as we age and our youngsters also help to look after them as we age as a population the youths will start looking after us they'll have the values and the appreciation for the elderly within their hearts if you just ignore the elderly and pretend they don't exist in society when we get to that stage the same will happen to us so it's important to try and build that it forms the basic fabric of society inshallah I hope that these points have been useful for you inshallah I hope that as a community we can strive to appreciate the elderly more and to help them and by helping them we're helping ourselves helping the elderly and giving them appreciation value in society forms the moral fabric of society and I've said as I've said before if you can help the elderly improve their self-confidence and self-esteem allow them to impart their wisdom impart their experience to you you can learn so much and as a community we can build the foundations for the evolution and for the improvement of our own communities inshallah I hope that our communities can grow from strength to strength and the youth of our community can become the flag-bearers of the religion of Islam and also become the soldiers for the awaited Imam alayhi s-salam once I made of our second Imam Imam al-Hassan peace be upon him dropped a hot bowl of soup on al-Hassan she was very scared because she thought that al-Hassan would be angry and punish her she immediately recited the ayah those who control their anger Imam al-Hassan peace be upon him smiled and replied he said that I am not angry then she then she recited the second part of the ayah and said and are forgiving towards those people Allah Imam al-Hassan peace be upon him said I forgive you then she finished the ayah by saying Allah loves those who do good deeds Imam al-Hassan told her that you are free the above ayah is from the chapter it's from the third chapter of the Quran Surah al-Imran verse 134 the moral of this story is that the Quran is not there is not only there for us to read but to also ponder upon and learn from the stories and from the morals within the Quran insha'Allah in tonight's episode I want to remember that individual that personality who is known as the door to supplication Bab al-Hawaij and that's Abul Fadr al-Alayhi Salam insha'Allah if we ask on these nights through his wasila Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will definitely grant our wishes this is a poetry that was written by myself and my brother Abbas insha'Allah it helps us to remember the qualities and the standing and the status of Abul Fadr the mirror image of Haidar the meaning of honor and valor you grant every wish and prayer the warrior like no other the one that Hussain called brother you'll be in our hearts forever this is testament to what you gave that the water circles you holy grave if our hearts are troubled and in pain we look to your shrine and call your name we look to your shrine and call your name you were ladies and protectors and you were the army's commander you stood as the standard bearer you mastered the art of combat the whole of Arabia knew that no one had the skills that you had when you stood against the enemies you broke through the lines with so much ease with the blood of Ali running through your veins sacrificed your two arms for Hussain sacrificed your two arms for Hussain Mola Mola Mola Mola Abul Fadr 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 and erases in it the sins and elevates in it the ranks as we come to the end of another show I want to leave you with a few final words this is something I've been thinking about and it's a it's a saying I've heard many times before I don't know who it's been quoted from but it's something that really strikes a chord with me I want to impart this saying to you because I want you to get you think and think about exactly what this person in your life means to you and that is regarding mothers the saying goes the mother or a mother can take the place of so many others but no one can take the place of a mother this goes to show you that a mother's place in someone's life is so unique that no one can replace her no matter how high the station of the other person is inshallah we should use these nights to get closer to our mothers and if they've passed away for whatever reason then please pray for them pray for their souls and thirdly for those of you who don't keep in touch with your mother as much make these nights nights that you decide to change yourself nights that you decide to clean the slate nights when you become closer to your mother because there's no one that would be able to replace her once she's gone I would like to once again thank you for watching and please don't forget to send in your videos your pictures your blogs about where you're from about the preparation you do for your iftar for the preparation you do for the month of ramadan once again don't forget to join us on social media on facebook instagram twitter and on youtube finally please don't forget us in your du'as don't forget the rest of the muslim umma in your du'as especially those that are needy the orphans and the widows and finally please don't forget to pray for the reappearance of the awaited imam alayhi salam I wish to bid you farewell with these following words wassalaamu alaykum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh