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All forms of worship are tools in order to achieve a goal and that goal is the Rida of Allah SWT. It is the pleasure of Allah SWT. Every Ibadah. For example, Allah SWT said, Allah said, Allah said, verily the Sarah separates you from all faujah and munkarat. Sarah separates you from all shameless and promiscuous and bad deeds and from all munkarat, all forms of disobedience and all forms of rebellion. So when we are praying, we are praying five times a day, then we must ask ourselves, look for the reflection. Is it happening in my life or not? Because this is a tool. Like you go to the gym, you don’t go to the gym just to look at the furniture or to meet people there and have fun. You go to the gym with a purpose. You go to the gym to increase your strength, to increase your muscle size, to shape your body and so on. So when you go into the gym and you start exercising and the coach is guiding you, then you have metrics and you say, okay, I’m going to check after one month, what is the result after two months, what is the result and so on. And am I getting the result that I am looking for? Right. And if I’m not getting the result, then I will twist and tweak and say, maybe I need to do more upper body exercises. Maybe I need to do more lower body exercises. Maybe I need to do more aerobic exercises. Maybe I need to lift more weights and so on. Because there is a goal and your goal is to get a particular body shape and so on and so forth. So the same thing applies. Ibadat are tools. Ibadat are the gym. The goal is the Rida of Allah. Is Allah pleased with me? Very simple to understand that Allah will be pleased if I am obeying Allah. Simple as that. So I must look at my life and say, I am praying, but in my life, is there anything? The prayer is supposed to separate me and clean me and clean up my life and clean up my act. And therefore, am I still watching the same stuff? Am I still listening to the same stuff? Am I still going to the same negative places? Am I still engaging in the same negative conversations? Am I lying? Am I cheating? Am I buying and selling haram? Am I eating haram? Or have I gone the other way, which is I have left all of these things. My life is clean. It’s free from all forms of corruption. Is that happening or not? The same thing is with fasting. Allah said, Again, the purpose of fasting. Allah said, we have made fasting, or you believe we have made fasting incumbent upon you like it was made incumbent upon those before prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before so that you may become Muttakoon. You may become people who have Taqwa. You fear Allah and you fear His punishment and you have hope in His mercy and you have hope in His forgiveness. This is the position of the Muslim, the Muttakhee, Bain ul-Kaufi wa Ta’wa. So Allah is saying this is the purpose for which fasting has been sent. Fasting has not been sent just to keep us hungry and thirsty throughout the day and at the end of the day, nothing to show for it. No, fasting has been sent to make us better human beings. Transformation, one month transformation, boot camp, which is called Ramadan ul-Karim. So we are in that. So therefore, let us find, let us check and say, is it happening? What are the metrics? What are the metrics to say that I am changing my life? Has my life changed? Have my, has my decision making changed? Or am I doing the same dumb things all over again? So very important. Keep on, keep on checking, keep on making sure that we are doing the right things because in the period of fasting, we are abstaining even from the halad, which is reinforces the importance of staying away from haram all the time. Abu Ura R. Radhi Allah Anhu, the reward for this, Abu Ura R. Radhi Allah Anhu narrated in a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim that Rasulullah Rasulullah said, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, so it’s the hadith of Qudsi, all the deeds of the son of Adam are his except for a siam for, because the siam is for me and I will reward it. Right? As siam u li wa ana azzi bi. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, the fasting is for me and I will reward it. And Allah did not say how much the reward is. Obviously the reward is in keeping with His majesty and grace. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to make Ramadan and this Ramadan the best yet in our lives.
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