 I seek salvation from shaitan the accursed. Dearest viewers from all over the world, as-salamu alaikum, jami'an wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to another episode of the Ramadan show with me, your host, Dr. Shabia Tijani. In this episode, we will be recounting the events and recounting the martyrdom of Amirul Mu'mineen alaihi salam. It's going to be a very saddening show as we remember this great individual and the martyrdom that took place. Before proceeding on to the show, I just want to remind you once again to join us on social media and send in your videos. Before proceeding, I would like to firstly ask you to please not forget us in your du'as in this very special of nights. Also I want to leave you with a hadith or a saying before proceeding on to the show and that is that Allah SWT in Hadith al-Qudsi says that if a person runs between Safa and Marwa countless times, so much so that they become like a dried sack but in their hearts they do not have the willaya of Amirul Mu'mineen, I shall not accept their worship. In this episode, as we remember and commemorate the martyrdom of Amirul Mu'mineen alaihi salam, we learn from his life many, many qualities but above them all his steadfastness when he came to Salah. I've spoken in previous episodes about how he would always stop in the middle of battle just to pray and with that we continue with our topic from yesterday which is how to prepare yourself practically, spiritually for Salah and we got up to strategy two, now we will continue with strategy three. Strategy three for preparing for Salah is to understand what you recite, focus on the meanings of what you're reciting in order to keep your mind busy, in order to keep your mind active. Imam Sa'diq alaihi salam has said, one who offers two units of prayer with the knowledge of what he said, he does not finish them without God forgiving him every sin that there is between God and him. Understanding what you're reciting in prayer is helpful in developing a more peaceful state of mind and allowing you to control your thoughts and feelings that would distract you from prayer. If you understand the words, appreciate the words, even if you're translating in your own language, recite what you are, think about what you're reciting and understand it so that your mind doesn't wander away. It's also important to focus on the quality of your prayers, not only just the quantity, the holy prophet peace and blessings be upon him has courted to have said to Abadar, two light units of prayer offered with contemplation are better than a whole night spent in worship. The next strategy, strategy four, to help you to prepare yourself for prayer is to have a relaxed and alert state of mind. An alert state of mind is one of the very vital ingredients of prayer. If you're tired and exhausted, it is better to rest or to meditate in order to get you to a state where you're ready for prayer. Amirul Ma'amineen has said, none of you should ever stand in prayer in a lazy or drowsy state, nor should you let random thoughts pass through your mind, for in that state you stand before your glorious and almighty Lord. Verily the reward a devotee derives from prayer is equal to the extent of it that he offers with an attentive heart. As you can see as the concentration in your prayer progresses, you become tranquil, your mind relaxes, your metabolism generally slows down, your heart rate and breathing slow down. At this point when you're totally mentally focused in your prayer, you achieve the greatest benefit from it. And that is that there is unlimited rewards. You stay away from the point where you become mentally exhausted and fatigued when you're in that state of mind. Upon completion of your prayer, if you do it in the right way, you'll feel completely relaxed. You'll feel a sense of satisfaction and reward. You'll be alert and even more focused. Your senses will be heightened and you will generally feel more confident and secure and you'll have a positive state of mind. In this state you'll feel more happier. The next strategy in order to try and get ready for prayer or during prayer is to have confidence in his book called Self-Building. Amini suggests that you start praying, you pick a secluded place, removable of all obstacles. Remember death and readiness as four main ways to develop and maintain one's attention in prayer. But most importantly, he focuses on one vital strategy and that is confidence in yourself, confidence that you can achieve the ultimate concentration during prayer, the confidence in yourself that you can achieve enlightenment through your prayers. If you do not succeed immediately, do not get disappointed. Become more determined, more serious at trying again and again and trying to attain mental domination over yourself so that you're ready mentally for the prayer. When you're in that state, you'll feel cleansed in your mind and your mind will be rid of any thoughts which should not belong there during the state of prayer. When you have firm intention and firm intention of belief specifically, you won't be misled during prayer. You'll become more confident and you'll accept the prayer. You will forget about shaitan's forces and shaitan's forces will not be able to enter into your mind and slowly over time the good forces will become stronger and stronger and the whispers of shaitan will diminish smaller and smaller. Building self-confidence and defeating, distracting thoughts aren't something that happen overnight. It is something that takes time, something that takes persistence and something that takes effort. We look at many strategies trying to achieve this and one of them is goal setting. When you start by setting yourself goals over a prolonged period of time you don't achieve it straight away but you try and set yourself measurable goals and as you do that, as you pray more and more whilst you've got these goals in your mind you will find that initially you will start to feel much better about yourself and your prayer but also you'll realize that your focus during this prayer is getting better and better and the negative thoughts are diminishing more and more. The next strategy is cleanliness. An important part of Islamic teaching is related to cleanliness. You have to be ritually pure to perform your Salat so that's doing your Wudu' and Ghusl whenever necessary. The Ghusl of Jama'a of Friday has been specifically stressed as it cleanses your soul from many sins. When you keep yourself clean and pure it becomes difficult for shaitan to penetrate into your mind and into your soul. Cleanliness is a barrier to preventing any negative thoughts in one tradition of the Holy Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. He has said an everlasting proverb cleanliness is part of faith and faith leads a person to paradise so here the Holy Prophet peace be upon him has said cleanliness is a vital part of your being in order for you to attain paradise. So other than the acts which are wajib which are obligatory upon us during prayer why not do other things like brush your teeth regularly perfume yourself and smell good, have good fragrance observe a good dress code after all you're standing in front of your Lord. Just like you clean yourself and wear nice clothes when you go to work for example or when you meet your friends think about when you're going to meet your Lord as you stand up in prayer you're actually standing up in the presence of your Lord. When you create a clean environment and you make yourself clean that will have a positive impact upon your prayer. As we move on to the next segment I just want you to once again remember Amirul Mo'minin many of these strategies that we've compiled have come through his teachings and through his life and as you remember him and you remember your Amal and you use these strategies in your own prayers tonight please do not forget us in your du'as and inshallah tomorrow we'll continue with our strategies in order for you to get the most out of your prayers. Imam al-Sadiq made the peace and blessings of the lobby upon him and said if the month of Ramadan remains safe and sound with respect to sins then the entire year shall also remain so. The month of Ramadan is the beginning of the year. As we've gone through the nights of Ramadan we've been trying to explore different parts of the world how you in different countries across the globe prepare for the month of Ramadan how you change your day-to-day lives in order to try and accommodate for this holy month. Today I want to talk about a place which is in Saudi Arabia which is known as Qatif. A lot of you know that this is one of the largest populations or largest Shia population within Saudi Arabia and again it's another community because of its isolation because of the Shia faith they're quite isolated in Saudi Arabia so they prepare in a very unique way and there's a lot of strong bonds that are built within the community within this month. In the city of Qatif obviously as it's a predominantly Shia and a Muslim area the working hours change people tend to work shorter hours during the day so instead of starting very early in the morning and finishing very late at night they start later in the mornings and they finish much earlier during the day so that they can use the rest of the day for rest and also to try and prepare themselves spiritually for the nights that lie ahead. The preparations for the month of Ramadan start from Shahaban where people will gather ingredients for their foods not necessarily the foods themselves but gather the ingredients freeze them or prepare them just before the month of Ramadan so that when the month comes around they are ready and they can start making their food. The day-to-day life of the people of Qatif when it comes to the time of Maghrib families will get together they will have their Iftar usually Iftar is a very light meal for them they would usually start off with dates and yoghurt and then they would have some soup which contains oats this is just to replenish their stores in order to give them a bit of energy some long-term energy and also it's very light so that they can keep themselves ready for the night that lies ahead. Obviously after that the whole community comes together within the Hussainiyah obviously it's a Shia city and there's a lot of strong bonds brotherhood and sisterhood because of the isolation of this community that are built during this month everybody comes together and becomes really strong and galvanized during this month they get together children men, women, adults, everyone, elders they come together within the Hussainiyah they prepare themselves spiritually so that they are ready for the nights that lie ahead they join in the Majalis Dua'a and Amal for those very special nights and then after that they all go home after going home extended families come together for sahur because sahur is the biggest meal of their day so they have a large meal for sahur before they go to sleep and then the next day starts once again obviously like I've mentioned a lot of the people from Qatif they like to prepare themselves for the month ahead from Shah Abaan this is not only true of the physical preparation of the food but also they decorate their houses they prepare themselves spiritually by fasting on some days of the month of Shah Abaan and also they like to prepare themselves in a mental state as well as we've gone through these nights of the month of Ramadan we've talked about how different countries around the world they prepare themselves like I've said every night it would be great if you yourself from wherever you are in the world could send us your preparation for the month of Ramadan how you prepare your day-to-day lives how you prepare yourself for work what your working hours are like how you prepare yourself for if-bar what you have for if-bar what your daily routine is like and in shah-la if you can send that to us we'll be very grateful so that we can air it and show it to the rest of the brothers and sisters across the ummah across the muslim nation and across the world Bismillahirrahmanirrahim dearest Imam Hussain TV viewers Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh may peace and blessings of Allah be upon each and every one of you in yesterday's report we showed you Rakhna Sultan restaurant this restaurant is so special the chiefs that they have here have come from different variety of cultures they have Iranian chiefs they have Syrian, Lebanese and Turkish as well so stay tuned as we go inside and show you how these different cultures being brought in one restaurant to satisfy the needs of the visitors here In the name of Rakhna Sultan, we have Turkish, Iranian and Lebanese in the name of Turkish we have Turkish kebab, chicken, chicken, chicken, meat and all the famous dishes in Turkey in the Syrian section and the Lebanese section too The Syrian grill that you can see behind me is from different two types they have meat and chicken they add some specific spices to this meat which give it a specific taste that the customers who come to this restaurant know this taste very well For this episode when we talk about health tips and advice I want to just take your minds to a different place I want you to think about your tears when you cry what benefit does crying actually have on your human body on your physical form and how do tears actually correlate with what we taught from the Ahlul Bayt, alayhi salam I want to take a study that has been conducted an article has been written by my brother, Dr. Abbas Tajani where he talks about why we cry from a scientific perspective when we talk about tears what I'll talk about is the different types of tears what those tears contain and essentially what impact those tears actually have on our bodies tears exist in three different types, three different forms we have basal tears irritation tears and emotional tears when we break these three down basal tears are the tears that are produced when we blink every single time and these tears help to lubricate the surface of the eye they contain specific substances that help us to keep our eyes fresh and replenished such as enzymes and antibodies that defend against bugs and stop diseases getting into the eye stop microbes and pathogens getting into the eye basal tears also have mucus which allows them to adhere to the surface of the eye without causing any harm but the main part of tears obviously is water and salts such as sodium chloride and potassium chloride the ratio of salt to water and tears is similar to that of the rest of the body if the body's salt concentration climbs too high it will take advantage of these tears to excrete the salt concentration or to excrete the salt through the tears so basal tears are what we produce on an ongoing basis through the course of the day next we have irritant tears or irritation tears these actually protect the eye and get secreted when the eye comes into contact with irritants such as dust or things like wind or any other foreign body that may enter the eye irritant or reflex tears have the same constituents as basal tears and the main aim or the goal of these tears is to protect the eye to stop harm coming to the eye to stop any foreign body that may have bugs or bacteria on it to affect the eye so you may stop any infections getting into the eye itself just like basal tears the irritation tears produce salt in great quantities salt is known also to help fight against any bugs or any bacteria and it also contains mucus so that the tears can actually slide on the surface of the eye without causing irritation finally we get to the emotional tears now scientists have done a lot of research into tears themselves and what happens when we secret or when we cry emotional tears and what's within the constituents of these tears aside from the things I've already mentioned such as salts mucus enzymes antibodies there's also other things that are released when you cry emotional tears and those are certain hormones these hormones include things like prolactin or adrenal corticotrophic hormone ACTH you see these hormones are actually in the body and when they are in the body for a prolonged period of time without being excreted or if they become at two high levels in the human body they build up to cause stress and they weaken the body's immune system as well but when we cry and these hormones are excreted what happens? science has shown that it's actually very healthy to cry emotional tears but sometimes people find it when they are crying in public it becomes socially awkward and they become embarrassed when going through a time of bereavement people often say that they feel better after they've had a cry and it's because that this crying process these emotional tears actually allow one person to rid themselves of the hormones that cause stress if the hormones are excreted or secreted even after physical pain those emotional tears will help to reduce the stress that is being built up due to that pain talking a little bit about prolactin which is one of the hormones which is produced in the human body it is found more in women than in men and that's why often scientists or generally we see that women tend to be more emotionally charged they tend to be more prone to be able to cry and it doesn't take much to make them cry it is thought that prolactin often becomes heightened just before someone cries emotional tears the level of prolactin in one system provides a threshold effect so the more prolactin you have in your system the easier it is for you to cry but that in term excretes the prolactin and allows you to get back to a state of equilibrium also scientists have found that men's tear ducts are actually smaller than women's and this may be an evolutionary change due to the fact that women over prolonged periods of time over many many thousands of years because of their hormonal balance have cried more Dr. William Frey who is a biochemist in Minnesota has researched the chemical content of human tears one of the substances that are mentioned that's found in tears is the stress hormone ACTH shedding tears helps to reduce excessive amounts of ACTH built up in one system Dr. Frey has suggested the purpose of emotional crying may be to actually remove waste products from the human body similar to the excretory processes that we have of human waste this may be another form of excreting toxic compounds in the human body Dr. Frey's conclusion is we may increase our susceptibility to a variety of physical and psychological problems when we suppress our tears crying not only removes toxins from the body but also reduces tension studies that have been conducted in adult psychotherapy have found people who have cried for a prolonged period of time during certain therapy sessions often leave the room with lower blood pressure lower heart rates lower body temperatures and also psychologically they seem more at ease than those who do not cry a study that was performed in Germany in Heidelberg from 1973 to 1986 showed the effects of suppressing one's grief and crying on long-term physical health this study was carried out on 7000 patients and the results are astounding they show that cancer and heart disease were more prevalent in people who had suppressed emotional grief completely over a period of two years or longer and people who had actually grieved and had openly been emotional had lower levels of cancer and heart disease this showed that crying emotional tears actually has a protective effect on the human body as a whole so let's bring this in context with what we taught from the Ahlul Bayt alayhi salam and from Allah SWT we are told in the Holy Quran indeed Allah SWT loves those who repent when we connect this with what we've just learnt about emotional tears when Allah SWT says you are close to me when you repent and cry through the periods of night and now we're approaching the nights of Qadr it is very important that we remember Allah SWT remember these verses and ask for forgiveness not only through lip service but also cry, open up your hearts after all they say the eyes are the window to the heart so if you cry Allah SWT will become ever closer to you then we look at the messages that we've got from the Ahlul Bayt alayhi salam we're told about the stories of the Ahlul Bayt the pain that they went through we're approaching the night of the martyrdom of Amir al-Mu'mineen and we learn about the the martyrdom of Amir al-Mu'mineen and the reason why we recount these events continuously is because we've been taught that in order to replenish our souls we must continuously remember the Ahlul Bayt and the sacrifices that they've given for us after all Imam Hussain meant in his final farewell to Imam Sajjad when he said when you return to Medina and meet Mashi'a let them know that on the plains of Karbala Yomulah was remembering tremendously Imam al-Hussain is trying to remind us tell us about his sacrifice so that we may remember it not only so that we may shed tears which will be beneficial for our bodies but also that we may shed tears which will also allow us to get close to him I want to leave you with this final saying from Imam Ja'far al-Sadik which talks about the link between grief and the remembrance of Aba Abdullah he says surely there is a burning heat in the hearts of the believers with respect to the killing of Hussain that will never cool down those people who remember Imam al-Hussain al-Salam and his sacrifice remember the sacrifices of all the Ahl al-Bayt al-Salam when they cry and they remember those stories not only do they physically become better not only do they physically become in a more superior state also psychologically they improve the stress and spiritually they get close to the Ahl al-Bayt and in turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala during the ruling of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib he was counting the revenues and expenses of the state just then Talha al-Zubair appeared they inspired some positions of authority Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib's ruling and they come to strike a deal with Ali ibn Abi Talib when Imam Ali saw Talha al-Zubair he extinguished one candle and lit the other Talha al-Zubair were very surprised at this they said we have come to you on some personal business an important business but why did you extinguished one candle and lit the other Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib says the first candle that I extinguished was from the treasury was bought from the treasury's money and the candle that I lit was bought from my own pocket and since now you have come to me with personal matters I lit the candle that was bought from my own treasury when Talha al-Zubair saw this they left and they excused themselves about saying any other word on this saddest of nights we remember the martyrdom of Amir al-Mu'mineen there's a short poem I want to recite dedicated to his life to his martyrdom in fact it was written by myself and my brother Abbas and it's called The O-Line of Allah struck by a poisoned soul his blood flowed like a river so badly was he manned has been the victim of a deed so inhumane a deed so inhumane then skies lament that Haider has just been slain to tragedy such was the force of that strike a pod gushed out from the wound the skies lament has been slain every day depend the one who fed the bear sat with the after today they wouldn't have a deed so Haider has just been slain he showed love to the young and elderly he wiped away the tears gave comfort to the has been slain as the sole Prestimon Zainab Hasan Hussein has been the victim Haider has just been slain Imam al-Sadiq made the peace and blessings of Allah upon him if the month of Ramadan remains safe and sound with respect to sins then the entire year shall also remain so the month of Ramadan is the beginning of the year as we end another episode of the Ramadan show I would like to leave you with a final thought we're in the very crux of the most important nights the nights of Qadr so it's very very important to start contemplating thinking, reassessing our lives and if we're heading in the wrong direction to take a new direction towards Allah SWT the thought I want to leave you with is don't perform any act because you're lured by success, material success and don't do anything because of fear of failure do things because you want to become the best person you can be and you want to be fulfilled the people that are most happiest are the ones who are satisfied in life as we go through we find that very very rich people who have everything they want are always or sometimes they're found to be disappointed the reason being that they do not have satisfaction in their hearts they're not content with what's around them with that I wish to bid you farewell but before I do I want to remind you once again if you follow us on social media you can catch the details at the bottom of the screen please also don't forget to send us your videos most importantly on these nights I would ask you humbly to please remember myself and the whole of the Imam Hussain TV team in your du'as and please most importantly don't forget to make a du'a for the reappearance of the awaited Imam, alayhi salam with that I bid you farewell and say wassalamu alaykum jami'an warahmatullahi wabarakatuh