 I seek salvation from shaitan the accursed. Dearest viewers from all across the world, my brothers and sisters, may the peace, blessings, and protection of Allah SWT be with you at all steps of your life. Welcome to the Ramadan show here exclusively on Imam Hussain TV with me, your host, Dr Shabir Tajani. Once again, throughout this episode, we'll be covering a magnitude of facets about the month of Ramadan so that we can be your one-stop shop for this holy month. Please join us on social media where we can debate and we can discuss these topics from today. Using the hashtag on Twitter, IHTVRamadan, please join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as well. Please don't forget to send us your videos as well from wherever you are in the world so we can have an insight into how different people across the globe prepare for the holy month of Ramadan and how they run the day-to-day lives. I would like to also remind you to please remember us in your du'as as well and may Allah SWT accept your du'as. Before we commence on to the show, I would like to quote a hadith from Amir al-Mu'mineen, alayhi salam, where he says, For surely life is a bridge and you should not build your homes on a bridge because as we travel through this life, it's a temporary life. The destination is somewhere else so do not put all of your efforts into this materialistic and into worldly affairs. For this episode on the topic of spiritual refinement, I thought we would talk about the preparation for Laylatul Qadr as these holy nights are coming up over the next few days, the next few nights. It is very important for us as individuals, for us as the servants of Allah SWT, to prepare ourselves in advance, to prepare ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And in order to get the best out of these nights, it is very important to optimise our preparation. The preparation exists in many facets so inshallah I will be going through these facets during the course of these segments. The first way to obviously prepare yourself is physically. Get yourself physically ready for the night of Laylatul Qadr by identifying the place where you will be praying. Make sure you're comfortable with that specific place and ensure the room isn't too hot, too cold. Make sure that all of your preparations for that room, setting up that room are perfect. And then as the night approaches, make sure that you're not too sleepy. Make sure you've had plenty of rest through the day. And thirdly, make sure that when you do iftar and you've eaten your food, make sure you've not eaten too much so it becomes burdensome for you, becomes heavy for you. You feel bloated and you feel tired. So make sure you're ready for it physically. It is also very important to prepare yourself mentally. Focus your thoughts on the importance of this night. And think about how unfortunate those people are who don't get the blessing of being able to participate on this night in the a'amal. Every time you think about the a'amal, remember your focus, remember your intention and your nia. Make sure it's as clean and as pure as possible. And it's for the love of Allah SWT. Thirdly, it is important to prepare yourself emotionally. The way to do this would be primarily to make sure at peace with yourself. Make sure you're content with your surroundings and you're satisfied with life in general. But then go further. Make bonds with those with whom you've broken bonds before. People in your community, especially your family, your blood relatives, ask their forgiveness for any wrongdoings that you may have done through the course of your life or recently. Forgive those individuals who have hurt you in the past. And forget anything that they've done which may actually cause grudges within your heart. Because whenever you have a grudge in your heart, it is almost like you're imprisoned within that hate. So release yourself from that prison. Prepare yourself for this night by being free. Remember, the reward for goodness is only good. The next step is to prepare yourself spiritually. The way to do this is to read the dua and the a'amal that you'll be reciting and try to understand the translation of it. So you can really connect to it when you're reciting it during the night of Layatul Qadr. When reciting the names of the ma'asumin, when remembering the ma'asumin, try to connect to every single one of them. Remember them, remember their stories, remember the messages and the morals that are left behind. Remember their life history as well. Because by remembering that, you will not only be jogging your memory, but you'll also be teaching yourself morals from their life because they're the ultimate guides. And when you're asking for forgiveness, this is the most important thing. Make sure your heart is soft. Make sure your heart is so soft that you're able to cry for forgiveness. Because Allah SWT loves that servant of His that can go through the night and cry and beg for forgiveness. And there's no night better than this to cry for forgiveness. So make your heart soft. When it comes to the night itself, prepare yourself and divide these nights into three portions. The first part should be dedicated to gaining knowledge. So before you engage yourself in the a'amal, listen to some lectures, read some books, make notes so that you can actually learn something positive because proactivity and gaining knowledge in itself is ibadah. The second part is dedicated to meditation. It is dedicated to asking yourself the questions about life, the philosophical values of life. Where do I wish to go? Where have I come from? What do I wish to attain from this life? And for every question, beseech your Lord, ask Allah SWT to give you inspiration to answer these questions because let's face it, a lot of them are rhetorical. A lot of them are matters of deep contemplation and matters for which you won't find easy answers. So ask Allah SWT to guide you. And finally and thirdly, this night is dedicated to worship. The whole night, if you can, try and spend it in the remembrance of Allah SWT. Remember it in the remembrance of the ayimah. Remember it for yourself as well. Remember your bad deeds. Remember the mercy of Allah upon you. And like I said before, cry and beg for that forgiveness because Allah SWT is never as close to you as he is when you're able to cry and ask him for forgiveness. The Holy Prophet peace and blessings be upon him has said that Allah SWT favours Friday above all other days. He favours the month of Ramadan over all other months. And he favours the night of Qadr above all other nights. So remember, you are living through and you're making use of this night which is more important than any other night in the Islamic calendar. Suleiman al-Marazawi asked Imam Ali Ar-Raza, could you please tell us why Surah Qadr was revealed? The Imam replied and he said, O Suleiman, the night of Qadr is a night when Allah decrees what happens to you through the course of the year and what will happen to you up to the following day of Qadr. Use this night to ask for Allah for sustenance and whatever he will decree is your destiny. Therefore, remember how important this night is. All of the A'imah, alayhi salam, have placed specific emphasis on this night. And it is said in Surah al-Qadr, Allah considers this night to be better than a thousand months which is approximately 80 years of worship. Imagine being able to gain 80 years of worship in one night. What an achievement that would be. Prophet Musa, peace and blessings be upon him, once addressed Allah saying, Lord, I desire to be near you. Allah said, whoever desires nearness to me is the one who remains awake through the night of Qadr doing ibadah. Prophet Musa said, oh Lord, I wish to earn your mercy. Allah said, my mercy is granted to anyone who is merciful to the underprivileged on the night of Qadr. Prophet Musa said, Lord, I wish to pass on the right path. Allah replied, that is granted to those who give sadaqah during the night of Qadr. Prophet Musa said, Lord, I wish to enjoy the trees and the fruits of Jannah. Allah replied, he says, this is granted to anyone who praises me during the nights of Qadr. Prophet Musa said, Lord, I wish to achieve salvation from the hellfire. Allah says, this is granted to that person who begs for forgiveness on the night of Qadr. Finally, Prophet Musa says, Lord, I wish to achieve your pleasure. Allah said, I shall be pleased with anyone who prays during the nights of Qadr. Brothers and sisters, I hope that this insight has been a valuable experience for you and it's inspired you to prepare yourself for the upcoming nights because surely these nights are special. And who knows whether you will get another opportunity to partake through the a'amal and through Laylat al-Qadr. Finally, I would very humbly ask you to remember myself and the whole of the Imam Hussain TV team in your dua on this very special night on the nights of Qadr. And most importantly, please, please do not forget to pray for the reappearance of the awaited Al-Mahdi, alayhi salam and also do not forget that there are many underprivileged people in this world and they rely on our du'as as well so please do not forget them in your du'as on this night. Imam Ali, commander of the Faithful with the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said the month of Ramadan has approached you. It is the chief of all months and the beginning of the year. Today in this episode where we go around the world to look at how people prepare their day-to-day lives for the month of Ramadan, we're going to focus on a country in North Africa. This country is known as Egypt. There is many, many Muslims there. It's currently a Muslim country. And as a result, the entire population or majority of the entire population, they celebrate and they prepare themselves for the month of Ramadan. Before this holy month begins, many of the houses there, they prepare by doing a deep cleanse of the house, cleaning almost like a spring clean. And after that, they try and decorate the house with green material and lanterns. Now, for these people, the lanterns are a sign of Ramadan. It's a very cultural and a traditional thing. During the daytime, most of the people, like in many of the hotter countries around the world, they tend to close their shops during the long periods of the afternoon where it's very, very hot and they tend to reopen their shops in the evening. After the time of Iftar, they tend to get together as families and as communities in order to eat Iftar, after which the family members, men, women, children alike, they all go to the mosque or the local centres to join in the Dua and the Amal and the Majlis, if there is one. And the interesting thing about Egyptian culture, especially in the month of Ramadan, is that they like to have their food split into three parts, just like they do during the day, like we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. They would usually have their breakfast or the portion of food that they would have for breakfast at Iftar time. Then they would go to the mosque. After they come back from the mosque, they would have what we would call lunch and then after a small break, just before Sahur, they would have their dinner portion of their daily meals. Just like Egypt, there are many other countries in North Africa, but Egypt has its own traditions and is very subtly different from the rest of the countries in that area. For those of you who don't know, Egypt is a very large Muslim country and one of its main sources of income is tourism. There's many, many people from around the world that go there and they get to view this spectacle firsthand. It's known as a land of the pharaohs because there's a lot of architecture from the times of ancient Egypt. During my time here and as I'm preparing for the episodes, I'm doing a lot of research into different parts of the world and how they prepare for the month of Ramadan, what they do on their day-to-day lives to try and accommodate for this month in order to get as much as they can out of this holy month. However, I would be very grateful and as a channel would be very grateful if you could send in your videos to show us from wherever you are in the world how you prepare for this holy month for what you do on a day-to-day basis, what you do for work, how you prepare your meals, what you do after Iftar. All of these things are very interesting for us so we can get an insight into different parts of the world, different people from around the globe and how they prepare for this holy month be it in the east or the west, whether you're in a Muslim or a non-Muslim country. It would be very interesting for us to see and for the rest of the world to see as well. Insha'Allah, we hope to be able to air these videos that you send. Until then, we move on to the next segment of this show. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. Dearest viewers, Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. May peace and blessings of Allah be upon each and every one of you. And may all your supplications and prayers be accepted by Allah during the holy month of Ramadan. Today, we came to one of the stores in the Holy City of Karbala that sells souvenirs. Not typical souvenirs of the Holy City of Karbala but special souvenirs. So stay tuned with us as we go and we will have a word with the manager and the store owner. Assalamu alaikum. May peace and blessings of Allah be upon each and every one of you. Can you tell us about the holy city of Karbala in Ramadan? Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. I am Riyad Al-Qaswini. I am the son of this holy store in Karbala. Honestly, the month of Ramadan in Karbala store has a special taste that is different from the rest of the cities and the countries that we live in. And this is a special feature of the holy city of Karbala. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. This is a special spiritual gift. Sayyid Riyadh is one of the inhabitants of the holy city of Karbala. I asked him about the atmosphere of the holy city of Karbala. He is saying that the holy city of Karbala is so special and especially during the holy month of Ramadan he has been living outside of Iraq for a while. He is saying that this atmosphere is totally different as we are close to one of the greatest individuals in the Islamic history being Imam Al-Hussein, alaihi salam. Sayyidina, what is the service that you offer to the visitors of Imam Al-Hussein, alaihi salam? Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. In reality, the project of the holy city of Karbala is a cultural project before it is commercial. So, in reality, with this project, Alhamdulillah, we were convinced that this project was successful. We tried to bring a new culture in the community in which we respect the Islamic and Karbala culture specifically. For example, when the visitor comes to Karbala to take the holy soil of Imam Al-Hussein that has the cure, he takes a piece of material or a piece of paper or something like that. So, we arranged it. We put it in packaging bags and put it in a bag like what I told you in the Islamic Wall. So, in reality, it is a new culture. We felt that it should be as close to Karbala as possible. I asked the brother, Riyadh, about what they served the visitors with. He said that we came up with an idea to modernize and develop the souvenir of the holy city of Karbala. Instead of being a simple soil or torba or tasbih, we came and modernized these souvenirs to be some modern and cultural. And the project that they have here is more cultural than beneficial. During this episode in the health tips and medical advice section I want to follow on from what I was talking about over the last few episodes and we talked about the stages of life. Yesterday we talked about old age and one of the most commonest complaints or commonest problems that the elderly have is joint problems, joint pains, arthritis. We hear all of these terms bandied around but do we really know what it's about? Before we go into what it is and how you can treat it, let's just talk a little bit about what is causing it. Essentially, joint pain can be separated or arthritis can be separated in many different segments, different sections. The most commonest form of arthritis or joint pains is called osteoarthritis. We say it's wear and tear, it's when the cartilage, the lining of your bones and the joints have degenerated over time and as a result the bones are grinding against each other and causing the pain. However, in younger people who don't have degeneration of their cartilage they can also get osteoarthritis but it's just a faster process. Before I go into treatment of arthritis I think it's really important to break arthritis down into the different sections and for you to be aware and the science to look out for when you are suffering from joint pain to self. As we've mentioned in elderly people the commonest form of joint problems is osteoarthritis. It's not to say that there is no more or not other types of arthritis that could be causing the problem but in younger people who suffer from joint problems and joint deformities it is very important to try and show them or highlight specific symptoms to look out for so that you can visit your doctor and try and get tested for the more serious types of arthritis. The arthritis that if not treated can leave you with joint deformities which are very severe and inflammatory arthritis. I'm sure many of you at home have heard of rheumatoid arthritis but there is other types of arthritis as well that can cause joint pains and that can actually over a prolonged period of time cause a lot of other problems around the body. Inflammatory arthritis is caused by inflammation of the synovium. The synovium is the lining around the joint itself and when you have antibodies that attack the lining of the synovium it causes inflammation and that's why this is called inflammatory arthritis and it's really important to look out for specific signs because these are the signs that will get you to see your doctor and hopefully get investigated and then treated. The first type of inflammatory arthritis I want to talk about is the most commonest form of inflammatory arthritis and that's called rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis generally affects people who are slightly younger usually middle-aged people but it's not to say it can't affect the very young or the very old and usually it's joint pains all over the body multiple joints affected and it's a symmetrical distribution where both sides of the body joints in both sides of the body are affected people with rheumatoid arthritis have other symptoms as well such as lung problems heart problems they can also go on to develop kidney problems so it's very very important that if you notice that you're getting pains that you actually see a doctor very quickly and to get tested other signs to look out for is that in rheumatoid arthritis and in fact in all inflammatory arthritis you get stiffness first thing in the morning when you wake up and this stiffness is actually worse than the pain and the stiffness lasts for about an hour or so in the morning and it can last for longer in some people so if you're finding that your joints are very stiff it's both sides and that it's causing you a lot of trouble to lead your day to day life I would suggest you go and see your doctor and they can do your simple blood test in order to diagnose you with this condition other forms of inflammatory arthritis are things like psoriatic arthritis or even lupus can cause joint problems again with these joint problems you will notice that the distribution is on both sides of the body you'll notice that joints all over the body are affected it's not just specific joints like osteoarthritis which can just affect a single joint or a couple of joints and also with psoriatic arthritis some people also have psoriasis which is a skin condition which I'll get to in future episodes in younger people in the very young you can also have joint problems especially of the knee and the hips these are very important if you're really having pain in the knees and the hips to go and see your doctor there's a sign of more sinister causes young people who are teenagers can have what we call growing pains where when their body grows very quickly the muscles and the tendons and the ligaments are stretched which causes pains in the joints and if it's something as simple as that you can go and visit your general practitioner or your doctor and they'll be able to tell you that it's just that, that's the problem but if you're a young person with joint pains do go and see the doctor there's nothing more sinister the other condition that affects young people is something called ankylosing spondylitis which again is a joint pathology, a joint problem and mainly it affects specific joints so the main joint pain that they get is pain in the lower back in a region that we call the ilio sacral region and they also get pain in their spine and what happens is in the mornings they find it very difficult to move around they get very stiff and they find that their pain actually improves with exercise and with time if you do suffer from any of these symptoms it is very very important that you go and see your doctor and your general practitioner so that they can give you advice they can investigate you and treat you if needed now moving on to the treatments like I've said the vast majority of people who suffer from arthritis actually have degenerative arthritis which is also called osteoarthritis as I've said osteoarthritis is the degeneration of the cartilage between in the joint space and therefore the bones rub against each other and cause pain the main treatment for this initially is symptomatic relief and it's really important that you're aware of the types of medications you can take my advice to you would be to start off with something simple like paracetamol and then work your way up if you're taking anti-inflammatory medication on a regular basis it is very important to see your doctor because things like ibuprofen or other medications that can help ease the pain of inflammation can actually cause problems with the stomach so it's very important that you see a doctor so they can prescribe you medication that will protect the stomach or to give you something else which will not harm the stomach as much such as a very weak opioid medication which is a weak another form of pain killer other things you can do is get heat packs and gel packs which can help ease the pain and the swelling people who suffer a lot from arthritis from osteoarthritis especially tend to find that over time the mobility gets so bad that even the pain killers don't help steroid injections some people have into their joints which is very good it's worth everyone who is suffering from osteoarthritis considering this as it gives you a prolonged period of relief from the pain however in some people it doesn't work and for those the next step is obviously trying other types of stronger pain killers and then eventually working their way up to joint replacement joint replacement obviously is a very it's a very complicated decision to make and it's a decision that will stay with you for the rest of your life and it's very important to when you do get referred on for joint replacement speak to the surgeon and speak about the potential complications of surgery because having done an orthopedic job before I'm aware of the problems of infected joints for people who've had knee and hip replacements in the past so be fully aware of the potential complications you can get and also if you do have a joint replacement it will still affect your mobility it's not like you will have your joints back to how they were when you were a lot younger finally in people who suffer from the inflammatory form of arthritis so rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis or even ankylosing spondylitis they will have immune modulation treatment so this is things that can start off from simple measures such as steroids and they can go up to very high strength immune suppressors such as methotrexate for example it is very important to realise that people who are taking this medication can become infected or can get recurrent infections because what this medication does is that it suppresses your immune system because it is the overproduction of specific antibodies that actually causes the inflammation and the arthritis so for those of you who are taking immunosuppressants or any medications that will affect your immune system it is really important that you see your doctor very quickly if you have any infections because you may need antibiotics or any other treatments finally for people who do suffer from very severe forms of inflammatory arthritis there have been new studies that have been done in which injectable forms of immunomodulators have been found to be helpful it is very important that if you get to that stage of inflammatory arthritis so that's not osteoarthritis it's the other forms of arthritis such as rheumatoid psoriatic or ankylosing spondylitis that you're under the care and supervision of a specialist because the medications that are prescribed in these high strength and high dosages of immunosuppressants you may need regular blood tests to make sure that your inflammatory markers and your blood cells the white blood cells which modulate your immune system are at a satisfactory level and finally just to say that those who suffer from inflammatory arthritis if they don't get seen very promptly and don't get treatment in due course can go on to develop osteoarthritis and also people with inflammatory arthritis can get problems with their hearts and kidneys and also their lungs so it's really important that you get seen too very quickly in terms of day to day exercises and help that you can get it's very important to exercise regularly but stick to your limits if you over exercise with osteoarthritis or any other form of arthritis you can be in a lot of pain so make sure that you do exercise regularly because it will help your joints stay supple and stay moving but at the same time don't over exert yourself and there are other things you can do in order to keep your weight down because one of the other risk factors for osteoarthritis is high BMI so being overweight can actually put a lot of pressure on your joints and can actually predispose you to getting osteoarthritis later on in your life so it's really important to maintain a healthy lifestyle to eat the right thing so eat foods that are high and rich in omega 3 and some studies have shown or anecdotally in fact we've been told that other things like cod liver oil have been shown to help the joints but if you do have a very balanced and a healthy lifestyle, a good diet you should be fine and you should be able to have a good joint protection finally in passing I just want to conclude by saying that as a community and as a society it's very important that you stay active and stay mobile and if there's anything that is affecting your mobility and your independence it is important that you get prompt treatment, prompt investigation and prompt treatment into that so that you may lead an active lifestyle because essentially one of the things that will get you close to Allah is to be active not only physically but also being active physically will allow your soul to elevate as well so insha'Allah stay active stay proactive and insha'Allah you will gain a lot of success in this world and in the hereafter once Prophet Sulaiman peace be upon him said that he would have a son from each of his wives however since he did not leave the fulfillment of his desires upon the will of Allah by saying insha'Allah only one of his wives was a child and even then it was still born when Sulaiman realized his mistake he became sorry and asked for the forgiveness of Allah in return he asked Allah to grant him a kingdom which no one has ever had before and will never have after him for this reason Allah accepted his prayers and granted him a mighty kingdom also known the kingdom of Prophet Sulaiman he also gave him powers over the gins, birds, animals and over the wind they all had to obey his orders and Allah SWT also taught Sulaiman the languages of all the creatures on earth at the command of Sulaiman they built huge temples fortresses, towers places and palaces made out of glass and huge and large water reserves once Prophet Sulaiman upon him in his army of Jinn and animals were passing over were passing over a valley of ants seeing the glory of the army the chief of ants alerted the ants to go into their holes so the army will not trample over them with the help of the wind Prophet Sulaiman heard the chief of the ants and smiled and ordered his army to not step forward until the ants have gone into their holes he then addressed the chief of the ants how could my army trample over you when we were passing way above you in the air and don't you know that I am the prophet of Allah and cannot hurt anyone unjustly the ant replied oh prophet of Allah I did not warn them because of any harm that they may suffer from however I was afraid that they would forget the glory of Allah SWT when they seen your army peace be upon you in this particular episode I want to dedicate the recitation the poetry to a nashid that I've heard recently by a very famous nashid the nashid is called freedom the reason I want to recite it is because all around the world we see this tyranny bloodshed suppression of voices innocent lives being taken and as the lovers of the Ahl al-Bayt have come upon us to make a stand against any form of evil, any form of tyranny any form of oppression gathered here with my family my neighbors and my friends standing firm together against oppression holding hands doesn't matter where you're from if you're young old woman or man we're here for the same reason we're here for the same reasons we want to take back our land oh god thank you for giving us strength too now we're here together we're calling for free no more being prisoners in our homes and no more being afraid to talk our dream is to be free just to be free now we've taken our first steps towards a life of complete freedom we can see our dreams getting closer and closer we're almost there oh god for giving us Imam Ali commander of the Faithful with the peace and blessings of Allah upon him is said the month of Ramadan has approached you it is the chief of all months and the beginning of the year as I end this episode I want to leave you with a final thought something that you can ponder over and after this episode think about and insha'Allah it will allow you to improve and increase in your spirituality that thought and that saying that I want to leave with you is that no matter how high the mountain is or however many obstacles you can see along the way if you look close enough to the ground you will always see a small stepping stone which Allah SWT has placed in front of you and using those stepping stones you can reach towards the top of the mountain surely if we employ that saying it to our lives and rather than looking at the destiny or in the distance and looking at the final place that we want to end up even though that is our objective if we look along the road at every little step of the way Allah SWT places something there for us in order to help us to get to that end goal I would like to remind you once again to join us on Twitter by using the hashtag IHTVRamaldan to join us on Facebook, Instagram and on YouTube insha'Allah this video will be uploaded tomorrow please also don't forget to remember us in your du'as more importantly do not remember to pray for the reappearance of the hujjah alayhi salam insha'Allah I bid you farewell and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow and insha'Allah until then wa salamu alaykum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuh