Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Ramadan Mubarak Alhamdulillah wa salatu was salamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala Amma ba'at The beginning of Ramadan, it is very important for us to identify the objective of fasting like we do at the beginning of any other task in our lives. We want to know why exactly am I doing this? The quick answer to that question is that Allah has commanded us to do so. And as believers we say, سَمَعْنَا وَطَعْنَا We hear and we obey. We do as Allah commands us. But Allah has also clarified for us the wisdom behind fasting. What is it that we are supposed to get out of fasting? Is it starvation? Is it thirst? No. Allah says, لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ So that you attain taqwa. So ultimately the objective of our fast is to attain taqwa. However, this remains a very abstract concept for most people. We are not clear, did I get taqwa? How do I measure that? So there are certain things that we should be doing and other things that we should be avoiding so that we attain taqwa. And that is by definition. Because taqwa is linguistically from al-wiqa'ah. And so what it means, which is a shield or prevention. And what it means is that we are putting a barrier between ourselves and the displeasure of Allah. سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى We don't want to do anything that would subject ourselves to His anger or to His punishment. At the same time, we get there through sincere devotion to Allah. By obeying His commands. And by intentionally avoiding any of those things which would displease Allah.
Or those things that He has prohibited. And from the most succinct hadith of the Prophet ﷺ on this particular topic is his statement. من لم يدع قول زور والعمل به والجهل فليس لله حاجة ان يترك طعامه وشرابه Whoever does not leave off false speech and act evil actions. And al-jahl, which is from al-jahala, which means to act foolishly. So one may act evil and then there are things that people do that are just foolish and without discretion. All of that needs to be left during the fast. The Prophet ﷺ said, whoever does not leave off those things, then Allah ﷻ has no need for him to leave off his food and his drink. So it is clear here from this hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that the objective of fasting is not simply to leave off food and drink. That's the definition of fasting. Right, you're going to leave off food and drink, you're going to leave off sexual intercourse from fajr to maghrib. That's the definition of fasting. However, that is not the objective of fasting. So notice here that the Prophet ﷺ says, whoever does not leave off false speech, lying. This the scholars have deduced from this particular hadith that whoever lies during the daytime of Ramadan, then he is not rewarded for the fast. Ibn Battal, may Allah have mercy on him, mentions this in his explanation of Sahih Bukhari, which is an interesting fact. Because the Prophet ﷺ in another hadith, he mentions that Allah ﷻ says that all of the deeds of the son of Adam are multiplied 10 to 700 times. Except for fasting. فَإِنَّهُ لِي وَأَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ Except for fasting, it is for me and I will reward for it.
So Allah ﷻ is mentioning that the reward for fast may be far greater than 700 times what a person has done. All of that can be wiped away with a little white lie, which we don't have in Islam anyway. It's a lie. There's no little white lies. And so it's very important that we watch what we say during the daytime of Ramadan. And this should be easy for us because we all recognize, we're very self-conscious in Ramadan. We recognize that the odor in our mouths have changed. It's not what it was. It's not pleasant. To Allah ﷻ it is more pleasant than the smell of musk. But to the rest of the creation, it's not. And so we're very self-conscious. We should be of fewer words. We should be thinking more about what we're saying. Being conscious of what we're saying. And this is, in fact, subhanAllah, indicative of taqwa. Because one of the ways that taqwa is often translated is God consciousness. And so the fact that now we are being more conscious about what we say, being more conscious about what we do, making sure that it is pleasing to Allah ﷻ, then inshaAllah this will help us on our path of attaining taqwa. We ask Allah ﷻ to make us from amongst the muqtaqeen and to forgive us our sins and to make us from the maghfurin, the forgiven. And in this great month of Ramadan, we say this and ask Allah's forgiveness. Wa salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
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