Patience & Gratitude

Patience & Gratitude

Imam Siraj Wahhaj

Introduction: Focus on Gratitude

I want to first thank you for coming out this afternoon. I know you had a ton of things that you could have done. And as the brother said, I wanted to focus on gratitude. Not that I think that patience is not important. It's very important. But I think that both these topics are so deep that I would rather focus on one than rather both of them at the same time.

I pray that this will be a good session for us, that we will be informative, inshallah, and I want this session this afternoon with a commitment to do something. And I'm going to focus on gratitude.

Gratitude in the Quran

It is something that Allah has mentioned a number of places in the Quran. For instance, Allah says in Surah Al- Baqarah:

"Remember me and therefore I will remember you and be grateful to me and do not be ungrateful." So gratitude is something that not only Allah talks about, He expects us to be grateful to Him on the one hand and on the other hand it is something that's a human nature.

We expect people to be grateful for things that we do. We can't help it. No one likes ingratitude.

The Prophetic Guidance on Gratitude

What I'm going to do today, I'm going to follow an advice that the Prophet gave us, peace and blessings be upon him. My talk this afternoon will be based upon that advice that he gave us and I'm going to look at that advice that he gave us and we're going to see if it makes sense. I want to first say that I trust Prophet Muhammad 100% and I believe that everything that he says, nothing is out of his own desire. It's nothing but revelation revealed. This is what Allah has taught us. So therefore when the Prophet says something, subhanallah, I really want to listen to what he said.

And listen to what he said, and let's see if it makes sense. He said:

(Sahih Muslim 2963)

"Look to those who are less than you and do not look to those who are more than you. Because it is more fitting that you do not belittle the blessing of Allah upon you."

My whole talk this afternoon is going to be based on that hadith. What does that mean? He said, look to those who are less than you. Look to those who are less than you and do not look to those who are more than you.

The Impact of Where You Are Born

How many of you were born in Pakistan? How many of you were born in Bangladesh? Egypt? Allah Akbar

Egypt? Subhanallah. Now brothers and sisters, believe it or not, where you are born can greatly affect your life. Tremendously. Where you are born.

I don't know how to repeat something your father once said. The best of people are those with long life and good deeds. Long life and good deeds. If you look around the world, the average person lives to be 67.1 years. Around the world. 6 billion people, the average person lives to be 67.1 years. If you live in the United States, the life expectancy at birth is about 78 years old. Something like that. 78.6. If you live in the United States. If you live in a country like Senegal, life expectancy at birth is 50-something years old. Pakistan is somewhere in between 60-something years old.

If you want the exact figures, I can give them to you. By the way, Japan alhamdulillah had one of the best in the world. Did you know that? You didn't know that. You feel good about that?

Understanding Through Data

I have, by the way, one of the books that I recommend you pick up is called The Human Development Report. I think that every president of MSA and imam should have this book. It is a magnificent book. It gives you the facts around the world, every country. It talks about, it's called The Human Development Report, comes out every year, put out by the United Nations. You should really get this. A lot of the information that I've been talking about today is based upon this book.

Why am I using this book? Because the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, said, look to those who are less than you. Now, 1400 years ago, the companions of the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, let me first say this about his companions.

The Best Generation

I believe what the Prophet said. He said:

(Sahih Bukhari 2652)

"The best of my ummah is my generation, and then the generation that follows it, and then the generation that follows it."

You know, my mouth is very dry. I wish I had some water. I'm not going to drink it. But I'm just, it is so dry, so you're going to have to bear with me.

He said, the best of my ummah is my generation. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. I don't think that we have one Abu Bakr among us, one Umar, one Ali, one Khadijah, one Fatima, one Aisha. I don't think we have any of that among us. Would you agree? Agree? Okay.

The Companions' Complaint About Charity

They had a complaint. Some of the companions came to the Prophet, and they had a complaint. This was their complaint. They said: "The rich ones among us, they take all the reward."

What do they mean by that? These companions were not envious and jealous. So what they said is that they take the reward. What do they mean by that? They pray like we pray. They fast like we fast. But there's something else that they do that we can't do, and that is they give sadaqah from the excess of their wealth. So they were kind of complaining because these people, they competed for akhira and not dunya. Their whole competition is that I don't want the money that they have. I'm not worried about the money that they have. I'm worried because they can get to jannah quicker than we can because they can do something that we can't do.

So they went to the Prophet. The Prophet said, and there are various hadith, variations of the hadith. But when he said: Every tasbihah - you know tasbihah? Subhanallah. He said every time you say subhanallah is a sadaqah. Every takbirah. La ilaha illallah. It's a sadaqah. So the Prophet was saying, peace and blessings be upon him, sadaqah is more than just giving money. You can do these things. You can say these things. Alhamdulillah. And that would be a sadaqah.

One variation, the poor Muslims came to the Prophet and said: "Ya Rasulullah, the rich ones heard what we're doing and now they're doing that too." And he said:

"That is the bounty of Allah; He gives it to whom He wills."

The Gift That the Sahaba Could Have Mentioned

One thing that the sahaba did not say that they could have said: "Ya Rasulullah, not only are the wealthy ones among us, not only are they getting a bigger reward because they're doing things we can't do, like giving sadaqah, we're poor, we can't do it, but if they knew what we knew now, they could also add something different," and that's what I'm going to talk about tonight.

Who can guess and speculate these three numbers that I have on the board? Speculate. Tell me what it is. Take a guess. It's a guess. You start. Give us a guess. Absolutely.

This, again, these are the figures of this Human Development Report. Those countries with high income have a life expectancy at birth of 78.8 years. Those countries that have a middle income have a life expectancy of 70.2 years, and those countries with low income have a life expectancy of 58.4 years at birth.

The Mathematics of Gratitude

Now look at the difference: 78.8 to 58.4 - twenty years difference in life expectancy. What if you have just one more year, just one more year than your neighbor, or one more year than your brother, or one more year you live compared to a person in another country? You would be able to do 1,825 salats more than that person. One year. How many fasts can you do? Add them up. So instead of saying one year, how about 20 years? Would you say that the more money you have, the better chance that you have even of doing more good? Make sense?

Understanding Qadr and Free Will

A possible question comes to your mind, and I don't want you ever to miss, and I want you to understand a very

good Islamic belief system. Allah says in Quran :

(Quran 3:145)

"No soul can die except by the permission of Allah. It's already written in a book." How many agree with that? Absolutely.

Don't think now because see you can say, well Imam, if somebody's in Senegal and they die at the age of 50, it's the Qadr of Allah. And if someone lives in Japan and they die at the age of 80, it's the Qadr of Allah. And you would be right. You would be right. But how do we understand the Qadr of Allah? A verse in Quran, you know, it's beautiful. I'm just going to gloss over it.

"Don't you see, Allah said in Quran, that Allah has subjected for you everything in the heavens and the earth." That is, if you don't abide by the rules of Allah, then you die at an early age. If you abide by the rules of Allah, you can live long. If you exploit the universe, you can live long.

The Example of Smoking

Now, I could be wrong. I'm going to make an assumption. Don't raise your hand. I make the assumption that everybody here in this room does not smoke anything. Huh? Huh? I'm probably right. It's a weak hadith.

Did you know that every year in this country, with this life expectancy, what it is, 440,000 Americans die prematurely as a result of smoking cigarettes. 440,000. I'm not making this up. 440,000 Americans die a year prematurely as a result of smoking cigarettes. You know how many people are murdered in this country every year? About 20,000. You know how many people take their own lives in this country every year? About 30,000. And of the 30,000 people that take their lives, over 300,000 attempt to take their lives, but they fail.

So if a person takes their own life, you said, well, it's the Qadr of Allah. Yeah, Allah didn't make them take their lives. If a person takes alcohol and dies in an accident, it's the Qadr of Allah. Yes, but Allah didn't make them do that. It wasn't His desire that they do that. Allah gave man limited free will. And if man uses that limited free will, there is a possibility that he can live longer if he doesn't smoke, if he doesn't drink, and those kinds of things. Does that make sense?

Global Poverty and Our Responsibility

Likewise, we can change this around the world. Did you know that there are a billion people on this earth that live on less than $1 a day? Unbelievable poverty on this earth. In my community, some believers have to make a choice: do I pay money for medicine that I need, or pay the rent? That may not be real for many of you, but for many people I know in this country, I'm not talking about Senegal or Guinea. I'm not talking about West Africa. I'm talking about West Brooklyn.

Now, what do we want to do this afternoon? We want to look at those who are less than us so that we can appreciate the gift that He has given to us. He says in Quran:

"Remember Allah's favor on you."

The Reality of Human Sinfulness

I like this idea of collecting money. If I was you, I wouldn't do it now. I would hold it for a couple of minutes. Don't give me money now, right? Hold it for a couple of minutes. Can I get that? See, if you give it now, you may give a dollar. If you give it after I talk, you may give ten dollars. So just hold it for just a minute.

Now, I'm going to take a leap of faith. Please don't get angry at me. I'm going to pick one of you or two of you. But don't get angry at me, okay? If I were a betting man, but I'm not, I bet you, and you, definitely you, I bet all of you commit sin, and you, and you, I'm for you too, and all of us, we don't.

What's my evidence? The prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he said, let me tell you something about the prophet. Everything that he says is right and exact. We believe everything that he says. But whenever he begins a statement by saying: "I swear by Him in whose hand my life is," when he starts a statement like that, not only is it truthful, but he's emphasizing something. Let me get your attention. I swear by Him in whose hand my life is.

He said:

(Sahih Muslim 2749)

"If this earth were populated with people that did not commit any sin, I would destroy all of you and would bring people who would commit sin so that they would ask Allah's forgiveness so that Allah would forgive them." No such thing as a human being without sin. No such thing. No such thing. This hadith doesn't encourage people to commit sin. It tells us the reality.

Understanding Why We Fast

Let's see. How should we be thankful to Allah? How do we show our gratitude to Allah? I assume most of you are fasting. I want one of you, just one of you, to tell me why you are fasting. One person raise their hand and tell me why you're fasting. Yes, sir.

"Because Prophet Muhammad and Allah, they commanded us to fast."

Number one, Allah ordered us to fast. He said it like this:

"O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you." You have to fast. There's no choice unless you have a legitimate reason not to fast.

And you know what? One of the legitimate reasons not to fast is to be sick.

"And those who are sick or on a journey should make it up later on from other days." There's reasons why a person can't fast. A woman, she has a cycle. She's pregnant. A person is sick. A person is traveling. There's a lot of reasons that a person doesn't fast. But if you don't have a legitimate reason, you have to fast.

Allah said it and the Prophet confirmed it.

(Sahih Bukhari 8)

"Islam is built on five." One of them is fasting Ramadan. So you have to do it. You do it because Allah ordered you. That's good.

The Benefits of Fasting

What do you get from fasting? Allah ordered you to fast but you find something in the Quran by the way and I challenge you on this point. Everything that Allah orders us to do in the Quran, everything the Prophet tells us to do is for our best interest.

"And that you fast is better for you if you but know it."

"And that you give sadaqah is better for you if you but know it."

"Whatever you spend of good is for you."

Everything Allah orders you in the Quran is for you.

But what do you get? What do you get for fasting?

Hasanat. Your mind is spiritually clear. Yes. Discipline. Self-control. This is America now. Ha? You can talk. Alright. Yeah. Self-control. Purify the heart. Patience. Closeness to Allah. Closeness to Allah. Gratitude. Purify your body. He's going to tell us. Yes.

To show your support to the poor. Allah Akbar. Wrong. Yes. Say it again. Yes.

The Promise of Forgiveness

Listen to what the Prophet said. By the way, this is... How many of you study Arabic? This sentence is what the Arabs call a conditional sentence. It's a conditional sentence. In a conditional sentence, it has two things. It has a condition and the answer to the condition. "Man" - one of the keys in a conditional sentence beginning the word "man" - whoever.

(Sahih Bukhari 38)

"Whoever fasts in the month of Ramadan with faith and seeking reward, shall be forgiven his sins." And you will find out that there are a lot of hadith that talk about that. More about that later. One of the reasons that we are fasting in the month of Ramadan is the forgiveness of our sins. Any one of us don't need that? Any one of us don't need that? I'm the Imam. I'm the Sheikh. The Sheikh. Do I need forgiveness of sin? Absolutely. Everyone does.

The Example of Prophet Muhammad's Night Prayer

Now let me show you something. One of my favorite Sahaba, to me, one of the smartest people that I know is Aisha. Aisha. Subhanallah. What a smart woman. And she wasn't smart for a woman. You know what I mean? She was smart. And many Sahaba, they sought understanding from her. And what a great blessing. Many hadith from Aisha, Ummul mu'minin, the mother of the believers.

An observation she made. And let's see something about this observation. One day she said, you know the beautiful thing about being married to the Prophet is that, you know, some things about him other people don't know. Like Abu Huraira. Abu Huraira can say the Prophet did this and I saw him do that. But Abu Huraira cannot say what happens after the Prophet gets inside of his house and closes the door in his privacy. Abu

Huraira, he doesn't know. Abdullah ibn Umar doesn't know. But Aisha she knows. She knows. She knows the man, what he does in the house. And the wives of the Prophet, they know.

She said one day, the Prophet prayed qiyam al-layl. This is not salat al-Isha or Fajr or salat al-Qiyam. She said he prayed so much until his feet began to swell. Now, this is how long he prayed. Give an example. When you go to the masjid and pray, how much does the Imam usually recite in that tarawih salat? A juz, right?

If you study the hadith, you will see the Prophet stood and prayed in one rakah Surah Al-Baqarah, and Ali Imran, and An-Nisa. Now, stop for a moment. Go to the end of An-Nisa and tell me how many ajza that is. A juz is one thirtieth of the Quran. One thirtieth of the Quran. Al-Baqarah, the second chapter, Ali Imran the third chapter, and An-Nisa, the fourth chapter. He recited that in one rakah. Not the whole tarawih. One rakah. Tell me how many ajza that is. Come on. Come on. You think you can do six ajza? Shoot man. Don't mess with me.

And she said, listen to the... See what we don't do. We don't try to understand what is being said. And after the Prophet did that, she said: "Why do you do that, Messenger of Allah? Why do you do that when Allah has already forgiven you your past misdeeds and your future misdeeds? Why do you do that?"

The Blank Check Analogy

Let's stop for a moment. Let's say you. Let's say you. I like you by the way. I like you a lot. Now let's be real. What's your name? Mustafa. Someone says to you, Mustafa, whatever you do in this life, don't worry, you're forgiven. Don't worry about it. You're going to Jannah. You're going to the highest Jannah. No matter what you do. This guy is crazy.

Can you imagine. Can you imagine a blank check. A blank check. No matter what you do, you're going to Jannah. You know what most of us would probably do? You probably blow it. I mean we probably like, whatever I want to do, I'm going to Jannah no matter what. Subhanallah.

Gratitude Through Action

But the Prophet, peace be upon him, said something different. When Aisha asked him that question, why did Aisha ask the question? Because she in her mind understood something about ibadah and forgiveness of Allah. Because there's too many hadith that talk about doing worship and Allah forgiving you.

So in her mind, this is what she's thinking. Like for instance, why... I asked the question, why would you make... Why would you fast and you said because Allah commands it. The same reason about salat. Allah commands it right? Well if you make salat because Allah commanded, why would you do extra prayer if Allah doesn't command it? A man came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, trying to learn about Islam. And the Prophet explained to him that you make salat. And the man said: "Is there more than that?" He said: "Except what's extra." Why would you do extra?

Back up. That's good. I like that. What do you mean by that? Why else would you do extra? Yes ma'am. That's true. Yes. That's right. Yes ma'am.

This is what he said. He said: (أَفَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا - Sahih Bukhari 4837) - "Should I then not be a thankful servant?" Allah did this to me. I know. That's exactly what you said. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. Okay.

Gratitude Is More Than an Attitude

And you see, and that comes to my conclusion. Brothers and sisters, gratitude is more than an attitude. Gratitude is more than an attitude. In other words, I'm very thankful. Thank you.

Now, how many of you brothers are married? How many of you brothers are married? I like that. It's two years old. It's fine. Your wife cooks your favorite dinner. I mean you really, really love this dinner. How do you show your gratitude towards your wife? Eat it. Eat it. Eat it man. Eat it.

You can't say I really love that dinner but I don't want to eat it. You know what I mean? So one of the best ways to show gratitude is use the gift that's given to you. That's one of the greatest ways to show your gratitude. Use the gift that's given to you. And what the prophet did is he showed his gratitude not just by expressing it, not by just saying I'm very thankful. He demonstrated that gratitude.

Counting Our Blessings

"Even if you try to count the blessings that Allah gave you, you'll never be able to count them." Think about this. I'll give you one. I'll give you just one.

How thankful are you to Allah that you have the ability to see? Think about that only. Wow. Take away your sight. All the things that you do. You go to school. You walk to school. You drive to school. You read your books. You see people. You talk to people. You go to your class. You work. All of that Allah gave you the ability to see. How thankful are we with the gift that Allah has given to us? Just the ability to see.

And now, all of these extra years that Allah has given to us, inshallah, living in one of the greatest countries in the world. I believe that America is one of the greatest countries in the world. But it can be made better through what Muslims do in this country. I really believe that. And one of the things that we have to do is show our gratitude to Allah first by using... If He blesses us to live to be 80 years old or more, to use that in the worship of Allah.

Thinking About Others

I want you brothers and sisters in this month of Ramadan to think about other people. What I was going to do, I'm glad you did it. I was going to actually take a contribution for some cause. I didn't know what it was going to be. But the very fact that you're doing it, I think it's great. To show your gratitude. I don't care how poor you think you are. Let me tell you something brothers and sisters. You live pretty good.

I know what it's like living in the projects. When I was coming up, I lived in the Fort Greene projects, my first five years of my life. And probably none of you ever lived in a project. Let me tell you what a project is. Living in a community area where there's about 24 stories and you got a thousand people living in the building. And you have to share an elevator, urine-laden elevator, with the rest of the people.

I went to go visit one of the Muslims in his house in the projects. I was sitting in the living room talking to the brother and his wife. And I heard, I heard someone next door. I thought it was his children. I said tell your children to keep it down. He said no that's the next door. The next apartment to them. You can hear the conversation of the person living in the next door next to you.

The Reality of Homelessness

How many of you have ever been to Flatbush? The next time you go there, I want you to go one block south of Flatbush. And you'll see on Atlantic Avenue and Bethel, there's an armory. And that armory has a thousand homeless men. You can complain about your apartment not big enough, your house not big enough. But you know what, you got an apartment. You got a private place where you can take a shower and you can eat your food.

And there are Muslims that live in that shelter. And they tell me their condition. You can't go there and leave someone... whatever property you have, it's unbelievable. So when you start looking at our condition, I don't care how bad it is, but good is good.

Putting Things in Perspective

You know that I was with Hamza Yusuf last week. We were together in Orange County. We had breakfast together. And he was telling me there's a point now that every time he goes to the airport, he's pulled over, taken aside. And they told him it was a random check. And he says they do this every time. To me they do it most of the time. When I go out of country, I go to any country, it's no problem. Coming back to my own country, they stop me every time. Sometimes they keep me on the average of four hours at least.

But you know when you think about it, you say yeah that's bad. But you know what, it can be worse. When you start studying, and I would recommend that you study the African American history, you study black people in this country, you know that last year the United States Senate passed a resolution apologizing to the African Americans because they passed no legislation preventing lynching. You know in this country, over 1,800 black people were lynched. And you know why they were lynched? Only because they're black.

So no matter what we suffer as Muslims, we have never touched the suffering of the African Americans. Look to those who are less than you. Don't look to those who are more. And that way, I'm not saying that we shouldn't complain. We should complain. No American citizen has a right to be mistreated. No one has a right to be mistreated. But when you start looking at it, you say look at our condition, we do pretty good. We really do pretty good.

Respecting Hard Work

And I look at how much money we make. Really we do pretty good. Even minimum wage. What's minimum wage now? It's $5.25 an hour. I'll give you what else. You know what, you want to hear something? Honestly, you know what, you may look, not you, but people may look down on people who work in McDonald's. I don't. I have a lot of respect for them. Because they're not robbing people. They're not stealing from people. They're working for minimum wage. And you know what, they're trying their best to feed their families.

And when you start looking at people in this country, I watch sometimes, they have these people in blue uniforms, and they be sweeping the streets. Some of them actually they get welfare. But now it's like when you get welfare, you have to work for it. And a lot of these people are working for the little bit of money that they get in order to get food stamps. I have a lot of respect for them.

So I just said that we should show our gratitude. I think that we should put money in this bucket really and make it reach those people who need it.

The Lesson of the Tsunami

The last part I want to close with this. You know what happened December 26, 2004? Anybody remember? The tsunami. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean. You know about 300,000 people lost their lives. Devastation to homes. Millions of people were homeless. But it gave birth to one of the greatest humanitarian reliefs ever in the history of the world. People all over the world, they got together and they paid up to six billion dollars for the relief.

Why was the world concerned? Because they were reminded every day. All you saw on television was massive pictures of people dying and homes being destroyed. But did you know that every hour 1,200 children die in this world? And they don't die because of an earthquake or hurricane. They die because they're hungry.

You know what that represents? It represents three tsunamis a month. Every month. But nobody deals with it. Why? It's not up front. People don't hear about it. They don't know about it.

I believe that when people know better, most of the time they do better. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, put it this way. He said: "If you knew what I knew, you would laugh a little and weep much."

He also gave an example of a Prophet who was beaten by his people until his face began to bleed. And the Prophet said: (اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ - Sahih Bukhari 3477) - "Oh Allah, forgive my people, for they know not what they're doing."

Conclusion: Graduate with Gratitude

So I'm saying to you brothers and sisters as you go on in college and may Allah bless you to do well. I want you to graduate from college and get the best of jobs or businesses or whatever you want to do. But as you improve,

Question and Answer Session

Now, it is now only about 12:20. Anyone have any questions or statements that they'd like to make? Yes, ma'am.

Question About Zakat Collection

Question: [About collecting money for a cause and whether it qualifies as Zakat]

You know, that's a very good question. You know, the truth of the matter is that what we're asking for today, if I wanted Zakat, I would come with the army. What do I mean by that? How many of you work? Do you know martial arts?

Now, let me show you something. Now, you work. You get paid, right? Now, what if I said to you, what's your name? Ahmed. I said to you, Ahmed, how much money do you make a year? Now, don't answer. Let me guess what you would say to me. You'd say something like this. Not exact words, but something like this. You'd say, Imam Siraj, I love you, I respect you, but what I make is none of your business.

Now, most of you are like that. You say, none of your business. How much you make? None of your business. But if Uncle Sam asked you, or his wife, IRS, what would you tell her? Why did I say I would come with an army? Because Abu Bakr, when the people refused to give Zakat, he said, I will fight you. Because Zakat is not sadaqah. No. Zakat is a tax that you take from the wealthy to give to the poor.

The Imams and Ulema have failed to establish Zakat. Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam. It is, in fact, don't you even think that it began with the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. You read the Quran. Allah tells the Bani Israel to establish salat and give Zakat.

Now, the technicality of Zakat is this, and it's how easy it is. Allah is great. If you have wealth in your possession for one year, after paying all your expenses, it's only 2.5% of your wealth. Now, probably most cases, like your case, I believe that most of us actually in sadaqah give more than they would in Zakat.

Sometimes you can't figure it out. You have to actually, you know, need almost an accountant to kind of figure it out. So you make a general estimation, you know what, this is what I make every year, these are my expenses.

So you can try to calculate it that way. But just make a niyyah to Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. You know, I don't know the exact amount, but I give this to the poor, inshallah. So it's niyyah.

You know, the thing about this, about our religion, most of it is niyyah, it's intention.

Question About the First Day of Ramadan

How many of you fasted for the first day Saturday? How many of you first fasted for the first day Sunday? Okay. Which one is correct? Saturday. It's not based on Saudi or something. Why you say Saturday? Both of them. Both of them, because it's niyyah.

Because those who fasted on Saturday, why did you fast Saturday? Hmm? Saturday. Okay. I already did it, it must be right. Alright. So there was a report on sighting, I was at home at 11:15. I got a call from Naeem Baig, the Secretary General of ICNA, the Islamic Circle of North America. He said there was a sighting in Houston, Texas and four in Denton, Texas, which is near Dallas. They said it was confirmed. So other people didn't hear about the sighting and so they started on Sunday.

Now, let me tell you how beautiful Allah is. You ever notice the first day of Ramadan is usually the most difficult. And let's say you said, okay, in the night, I'm going to fast tomorrow morning, right? You make niyyah. And you wake up and you forgot it's Ramadan and you cook this big breakfast. Pancakes and eggs and biscuits and waffles and sausages and beef sausages. Halal beef sausages. And you start eating it and you eat and you eat all up. And you eat the last one. Ah! Subhanallah! I forgot.

What do you do? Spit it out. Spit it out? No. You keep eating it. I'm sorry. You don't eat anymore, but you don't have to make that day up. You don't have to make that day up. Allah gave it to you. The next day, right? I'm going to fast. You wake up the next day and you make this huge breakfast and you eat it. Ah! What do you do? Keep fasting.

The third day. Ah! Theoretically, theoretically, you can go the whole month of Ramadan, eat every day and say, oops! And get credit for fasting. Am I right? Theoretically? Listen, if a person does that, we got to check them out, right? But the point is, it's niyyah. It's niyyah. We believe that this is the day of Ramadan. Today is the third day. This is our niyyah. And Allah, He blesses us by making our intentions. So you make niyyah as good as you can and try to fast. Okay?

Question About Seeking Forgiveness While Fasting

Anyone else? Yes, ma'am?

Question: Would it be correct then to have the intention to seek forgiveness while fasting?

Yeah, you don't have to, but you could. It's good because it helps you to think about this. Remember Allah, please forgive me my sins. Absolutely. Though one of the rewards of fasting is the forgiveness of sin, but

absolutely there's no harm in asking. It's not a prerequisite, but there's no harm in actually asking Allah for forgiveness. We need that desperately.

Question About Nicotine Patches

Someone asked me this question. I didn't know how to answer it. He smokes, so he told me is it okay in Ramadan that he uses the patch during the day? Ah, probably so. I'm going to check. That's an excellent question. Um, does the patch emit things into the body? Oh, it does. It gives some nicotine. That's an excellent question. I'm going to check. That's a very good question. I'm going to check that. Um, I have never heard that question. I think it's a really good question. Um, so I'm going to check. Yes, ma'am?

Question About Wealth and Eradicating Poverty

Question: [About wealthy people and using their wealth to help the poor]

Um, I believe that, you know, there are some incredibly wealthy people. Just take Bill Gates for instance, right? Um, how much is, what's the latest figure? 53 billion. What's 2.5% of 53 billion? I'm glad you're not outside.

But you know, honestly, the unbelievable wealth that we have, and I do believe that, that if we just paid Zakat on those debts, that we would get rid of poverty. And it's not as much as you think. You know something that we take for granted? We take for granted clean water. And you know, there's a lot of people in sub-Saharan Africa who can't get clean water. And you know, we go and turn the faucet and drink water, and it's like unbelievable. They gotta sometimes go miles, even to get that water.

So, and I do believe that if we would, people of the world would spend a little bit more, we could eradicate poverty. Yes?

Question About Brushing Teeth While Fasting

Question: Is it okay to brush your teeth while fasting?

Um, well, yes. But don't brush your teeth, like, put a whole lot of stuff on. And don't brush it like every two minutes, right? Yeah, you can. You can. Just don't try to avoid swallowing. You can brush your teeth. Yes, ma'am?

Question About Dental Work and Anesthesia

Question: Does going to the dentist and receiving anesthesia break the fast?

I think it does. I think it does. Um, someone may give you a fatwa about that it doesn't. I think I read somewhere once. But see, let me tell you why I think it breaks the fast. The question is, if you go to the dentist and they give you a shot, does it break the fast? I think it does. I think you should just make it up.

But for two reasons. Because, number one, it could be under the category for many kinds of people who are mareed, or are suffering from a type of illness, those who are sick. Not that you're sick, but you're going to a dentist to do some work, and you have to give it a shot. And the other thing is that you're actually putting something in your body. And that's why the patches, it intrigues me, because you're actually putting something in your body, and that's the thing that breaks the fast.

To be safe, I would make that day up. I would try to continue fasting, but then I would still, on a safe side, I would try. And those two questions, I think I'm going to check that one, and the one about the patch. Yes, ma'am?

Question About Insulin and Medication

Question: Would insulin or injections break the fast?

Again? Why would insulin or nutritional IV be considered breaking the fast? No, see, I'm not even sure if that's true. I mean, I don't want to say who said it, but insulin doesn't break the fast. You've heard that, too? Okay. See, I would put it in the same category, and I agree with you. To be consistent, I would put it in the same category.

I think that, I always encourage the people, any medication they have to take, take it at iftar, suhoor, and iftar. So right before, but I do think that technically, if you take it during the day, again, they fall in the category of the sick, in my opinion. But I'll check that, inshallah. There's three things I'm going to check. Yes, ma'am?

Question About Mouthwash

Question: [About using mouthwash while fasting]

Again? The what? This thing? No. Mouthwash. Just avoid swallowing, that's all. Don't digest it. Yes?

Question About Committing a Sin While Fasting

Question: If you eat something haram while you're fasting, do you stop yourself in the middle, does that break your fast?

If you eat some kind of haram while you're fasting, you may stop right away, or you stop yourself in the middle, does that break your fast? No. Well, it's a sin. But doing it in itself doesn't break the fast. I mean, for instance, if you lie, it doesn't technically break the fast. You shouldn't lie, but it doesn't technically break the fast. Yes, sir?

Question About Habitual Good Deeds

Question: Do you get reward for a good deed even when it becomes a habit and you don't think about it?

Do you do a good deed to a point where it's habitual? That's a good question. That's a very good question. It's an intriguing question. He said if you get used to doing a good deed, and you don't even think about it, do you still get rewarded for it? Absolutely.

Because what happens is that you train yourself to do it. You train yourself to make salah. You don't even think about it anymore. You train yourself to do good deeds. But I do think, on the other side of that, every once in a while, it's good to remind yourself why you're doing it. For instance, myself, as an imam, I give the khutbah every Friday. Some of them, right? Most of the time. And I have to remind myself so that I can do this for Allah.

So we should always remind ourselves that sometimes you will forget and we can change our niyyah. I think that's an excellent question. Yes, ma'am?

Question About Not Fasting

Question: What happens if you don't fast at all?

What happens if you don't fast at all? Good question. Now, if you don't have any legitimate reason for not fasting, let's say you're not sick or anything like that, then we're taught there's no punishment in this life. But you have to meet Allah on the Day of Judgment with not having obeyed His commandment. So however way He would deal with us, He would either forgive us or punish us.

And that's the beautiful thing about fasting because the Prophet said something very interesting. He said: (الصِيَامُ لِي وَأَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ - ) (Sahih Bukhari 1904) - "Allah said, fasting is for Me and I will reward for it." As if to imply that other things are not for Me. Like prayer and charity and things like that.

But what the scholars say, that is just emphasizing that when you fast, really nobody knows. I mean, really nobody knows. I mean, maybe you think everybody here is fasting, right? Maybe none of us are fasting. But we don't know. We don't know, right? We don't follow each other every minute. I can't be with you 24 hours or however many hours. And that's one of the things that's beautiful about fasting is that nobody really knows but Allah Himself. So He would reward us Himself. And if He's going to punish us, He will punish us Himself.