Fasting, Materialism and Time Management- Ramadan Advice

By Suhaib Webb | 2026-01-16T03:47:57.21772+00:00 | Topic: Ramadan

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Fasting, Materialism and Time Management: Ramadan Advice

Opening and Introduction

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. Peace be upon you.

Imam Sohaib Webb is a contemporary American Muslim educator, activist, and lecturer. His work bridges classical and contemporary Islamic thought, addressing issues of cultural, social, and political relevance to Muslims in the West. After converting to Islam in 1992, Imam Webb left his career in the music industry to pursue his passion in education. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Central Oklahoma and received intensive private training in Islamic sciences under a renowned Muslim scholar of Senegalese descent.

Imam Webb was hired as the imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, where he gave khutbas, taught religious classes, and provided counseling to families and young people. He also served as an imam and resident scholar in communities across the United States. From 2004 to 2010, Imam Sohaib Webb studied at the world's preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, in the College of Sharia. During this time, after several years of studying the Arabic language and the Islamic legal tradition, he also served as the head of the English translation department at the Dar al-Iftar in Egypt. Outside of his studies at Al-Azhar, Sohaib Webb completed the memorization of the Quran in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

He has been granted numerous traditional teaching licenses, ijazats, adhering to centuries-old Islamic scholarly practice of ensuring the highest standards of scholarship. Imam Webb was named one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in 2010, and his website was voted the best blog of the year by the 2009 Brass Crescent Awards. Imam Webb has lectured extensively around the world, including in the Middle East, East Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America. He currently lives in the Bay Area, where he works with the Muslim American Society and conducts classes in Islamic studies.

We're delighted to have him here with us tonight. Ramadan Mubarak to everyone. Please join me in welcoming Imam Sohaib Webb.

Beginning Supplications

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. وَأُصَلِّي وَأُسَلِّمُ عَلَى مَن بُعِثَ رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ. سَيِّدِنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. We beseech Him and invoke Him to send peace and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, his companions, his family, his community, and those who follow him until the end of time.

Dear brothers and sisters, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. It is a great honor and pleasure to be here at this prestigious institution, Zaytuna. We ask Allah in this blessed month of Ramadan to give the founders and those

who are struggling and working constantly and the institution tawfiq, inshallah, to do what is necessary to bring the pleasure of Allah, which will, of course, involve bringing, inshallah, a good understanding of Islam to America.

The Month of Ramadan and Its Obligation

As he said, I'm currently living in the Bay Area. Inshallah, we'll see for how long. But the Bay Area is a wonderful place. I'm sure many of you as students have experienced a wide variety of cultural articulations that tend to bleed through the Bay Area, if you will, as well as a lot of other things, hopefully, maybe, you haven't told your teachers about. But, inshallah, I hope you'll enjoy your time here.

This is the month of Ramadan. It's the ninth month of the lunar calendar for Muslims. The second year of the hijrah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, this month was made an obligation for Muslims to fast. And he, peace and blessings be upon him, came out one day to his companions and he said to them,

فَرَضَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ صِيَامَ رَمَضَانَ

Indeed, Allah has made the month of Ramadan an obligation upon you.

And in the Quran, we find it incredibly articulated. Allah says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

(Quran 2:183)

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may attain taqwa" (Quran 2:183).

As Imam al-Haramain - I don't know if you studied Usul al-Fiqh yet, but, inshallah, you have Dr. Hatim here, who can really give you a nice understanding, as well as Imam Yasin, Dawood Yasin - you know كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ here means, Allah has prescribed for you, so we understand it becomes an obligation. But the word that's used is incredible كُتِبَ because it's a prescription. It's written for you.

Understanding Taqwa - The Goal of Ramadan

So we'll just take a few lessons that we can take from the month of Ramadan, and then we'll let you go, inshallah, and make your adhkar, your dua. This is a good time to be alone, before you break your fast. As Imam Ibn Rajab, he said, I fasted the whole dunya, and I plan to break my fast in Jannah. So, all of this is only a reminder of what awaits us.

And that takes us to, of course, the first goal of Ramadan that everyone knows about, is taqwa. And we say that something يُعْرَفُ بِمَقْصِدِهِ or يُشْرَّفُ بِمَقْصِدِهِ - something is honored, and something is known by its objective. And that's why the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is the greatest human being ever, because his only objective was Allah. As for the month of Ramadan, Allah clarifies this in a beautiful way. He says:

(Quran 2:183)

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those people before you, so that you can achieve taqwa" (Quran 2:183). So the goal of Ramadan is taqwa.

The Importance of Learning Arabic

The word taqwa, since this is an Arabic intensive, and I am very happy to see young American Muslims investing their summer in something besides Jersey Shore. It's great to see us investing in Jannah Shore. Alhamdulillah. And we really should not be too intimidated, because we are not Arabs, or maybe we are Arabs, but we speak بَاؤُلُكَ instead of أَقُولُ لَكَ. That's not an issue. My first teacher, as he mentioned, was of Senegalese descent. He studied, actually his great grandfathers were from the Marabitun. And I remember I used to tell him, but I'm not an Arab, but I'm not an Arab. And he would tell me, and I'm not an Arab, I'm not an Arab, I'm not an Arab. So you can do it inshallah.

As one of the ulama said: لُغَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ مِنَ الدِّينِ وَمَعْرِفَتُهَا فَرْضٌ وَاجِبٌ - He said that Arabic is part of the Islamic religion. It is Islam. And knowing it according to him, and this is not the strongest opinion, but he has his opinion, is an obligation. لِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ لَا يُفْهَمُ إِلَّا بِهَا - Because the Quran is not understood except with Arabic وَمَا لَا يَتِمُّ الْوَاجِبُ إِلَّا بِهِ فَهُوَ وَاجِبٌ - And whatever helps us to complete an obligation becomes an obligation.

So this is an incredible effort that we see. And this will not - لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ (Quran 2:255) - will not go الْكَرِيمِ الْهَادِي سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى inshallah unnoticed by

The Meaning and Components of Taqwa

So the goal of the month is taqwa. The word taqwa comes from a word which means a shield - الْوِقَايَةُ. And that's why in the Quran we find : وَوَقَاهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ - "And their Lord protected them from the punishment of the Hellfire" (Quran 52:18). The word وَقَاهُمْ

So the ulama said that taqwa means to put a shield between yourself and the disobedience of Allah. Or to put a shield between yourself and the punishment of Allah. Or to put a shield between yourself and the potential anger of Allah.

And they said the shield is made up of three to four important components. Number one is knowledge. Knowing something, and here we mean knowledge which is beneficial. And that's why we have to commend an effort to create an institution like Zaytuna. Because we live in what's now called trans-modernity. I'm not sure which modernity we're in, but we're in one of them, we're moving pretty fast.

And you know it's very similar to what Zuhair said in his poem, he said about tomorrow, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. This is the whole purpose of post-modernity. And the absence of religious authority. We're not encouraging a priest class but if we look at Muslims, in particular if you go online and you see some of the comments or some of the questions. Or you see some of the people speaking in the name of Islam who absolutely have no proper credentials. So it became like chaos.

And that time it's definitely important to reinforce the need for institutions to serve as compasses for Islam in America. To serve as one of the guides that will help people understand their religion and understand their relationship with the greater society. So this is an incredible effort. You are pioneers. You should feel that you

are investing your summer in something far greater than Jersey Shore as I said earlier. You're investing inshallah in something that will not be forgotten by those who come later on inshallah.

Three Levels of Taqwa

And the word brings with it this understanding of protecting ourselves from haram. And the ulama said there are three types of people when it comes to taqwa. Those who are kind of on and off. Those who at times they have it, mashallah, but at times they don't.

The second are those who have taqwa, meaning that they stay away from the haram and they observe the awamir, the orders that Allah has given, but sometimes they slack off in other areas.

Then we have, as mentioned in Surah Fatir, those who Allah نَوَّرَ قُلُوبَهُم بِمَعْرِفَتِهِ، وَاصْطَفَاهُمْ لِعِبَادَتِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - those who Allah put light in their hearts, and those who Allah chose to be His servants. And that's why some ulama said سَابِقُوهُم بِالْخَيْرَاتِ بِإِذْنِهِ هُمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءُ - some of the ulama said, those who are first and foremost having this type of relationship with Allah are the prophets, but the majority said no. The majority said no.

And these are the people that Imam al-Ghazali, may Allah have mercy on him, mentioned, they are a special type of breed. They are a lucky type of people. And these are the ghuruba that we ask Allah to make us from, the strangers. And these are those who observe the wajib, they observe also the sunan, they observe leaving the makruhat and the muharramat, and also they do not waste their time in the permissible, fearing that it may cause them to fall into the forbidden. This is their shield.

And that's why Abu Darda, may Allah be pleased with him, said, nobody will taste true taqwa until he leaves what's permissible, fearing that he may fall into the haram. Now, on an individual level, that's fine. On a social level, I would say, before you make that decision, talk to someone who's a mufti. Because here we have تَعَارُضُ الْمَقَاصِدِ وَالْمَصَالِحِ - here, sometimes we might have a contradiction between what's harmful and beneficial. And if you make the call on a social level, you could affect all of the Muslims and all of the community in general.

But on an individual level, at an ibadah level, that's your personal choice. If you don't want to play Xbox, don't play Xbox. I don't think people here play Xbox, I'm just giving an example. Or whatever. Right? But you leave it fearing, I don't want to waste my time.

Time Management and Dedication to Knowledge

That's why al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said, some things are not haram, but I act like they're haram because I'm Shafi'i. I'm Imam Shafi'i. I have to set an example. And secondly, I don't have time to waste. I don't want to waste my time. So, these are people who are very careful even with the permissible. And this means their free time.

And that's why Majd al-Din ibn Taymiyyah, the grandfather of Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah, he used to order his grandson to read books for him while he was in the restroom. The writer of al-Muntaqah, which was

explained by al-Shawkani, Nayl al-Awtar. So, somebody asked him, how can you let someone read books to you while you're in the restroom? He said, I don't want to waste my time.

So, these are people who really know how to invest themselves. In Egypt once, when I was living in Egypt, there was a very beautiful story from one of the arifeen that there was a young woman, she used to live, she was the daughter of one of our sheikhs. She used to live in a sardine can. It's very crowded. It's extremely, extremely crowded. Seventy million people now in Cairo, they're saying, absolutely unbelievable. It's so crowded, when you land here, you hear silence. I know you can hear silence. I landed here, someone told me, you hear that? I said, yeah, that's silence. That's another sheikh, sheikh of tasawwuf.

And she said one day to her father, hey, what happened to that pole that used to be on the roof? There used to be a pole over there, right? He said, he said to her, the sheikh died. It wasn't a pole, he used to be praying all the time. So, her whole life, she thought it was a pole. As we say in Egyptian, it's a man, it's not a pole. They don't waste their time, who don't waste their time.

And that's why one of the scholars said, I've met people who are more careful with their time than the banker with his money. And one of them said, who wastes their time? Who wastes their time is worse than someone who actually, you know, he dies. So they said, why? He said, because someone who dies, they leave the dunya. But someone who wastes their time, they leave the dunya and the akhirah.

Advice for Students of Knowledge

So, as students of knowledge, people who want to study, you have to be very careful about your time, how you use your time, how you invest your time. And the real student of knowledge is not the one who says, you know what, I'm gonna take a break from my studies and chill. I remember once there was a brother, it took him a month to finish Surat al-A'la with me. My daughter, subhanallah, memorized Surat al-A'la in two days, man. This brother took a month. So I said, bro, it took you a month, man. I'm, you know, bro, I memorized Surat al-Baqarah in two weeks, man. It took you a month to finish Surat al-A'la, you know. You need to be serious. He said, well, I'm just chilling. I said, if you continue to chill like this, you're gonna thaw in hell.

He got upset with me, but it helped him out. Because as al-Muhasibi said: اِعْلَمْ أَنَّ مَنْ أَحَبَّكَ فَقَدْ نَصَحَكَ وَمَنْ غَشَّكَ فَقَدْ دَاهَنَكَ - Know that the person who advised you sometimes loves you, and the person who deceived you flattered you. Sometimes you need it, man. Sometimes you need it.

So I'm telling you now, you're lucky you're around Imam, you know, Dawood, Dr. Hatim, Imam Zaid, Sheikh Hamza. Don't let that be the goal. The goal is not, oh, I was around Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. I got a picture with him. No, no. The goal is to use your time. What they called اخْتِمَارُ وَقْتِ - to use your time. Not making the actual, you know, being here and around your teachers, what you sought. No, what you sought is Allah. And what you sought is what's gonna benefit you in the hereafter from knowledge.

ARABIC TEXT (CRITICAL - PRESERVE EXACTLY)

him, in al-Muwafaqat, in the fifth volume, actually the first volume, he talks about how the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, does not waste time on things that don't cause people to change and become better.

So when Jibreel, peace be upon him, asked him :

فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ السَّاعَةِ قَالَ مَا الْمَسْؤُولُ عَنْهَا بِأَعْلَمَ مِنَ السَّائِلِ

"Tell me about the Hour," he said, "The one asked about it knows no more than the one asking" (Sahih Muslim 8). I don't know. But then when he asked him:

فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنْ أَمَارَاتِهَا

"Tell me about its signs," the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, goes into great detail.

So al-Shatibi, this incredible jurist who died 790 after Hijri, he said this is a proof that Islam seeks to bring what's beneficial and prevent people from harm. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, answers when it comes to this. When someone asked him:

مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ قَالَ مَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا

"When is the Hour?" he said, "What have you prepared for it?" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6167, Sahih Muslim 2639). So now the remembrance of the hereafter causes all of us to ping! Get in check.

Teaching Through Experience

That's why when I teach the bab al-janazah in fiqh Maliki, you know what I do? We actually do it. Every one of the students gets wrapped up. We put you in a box. We go for a walk with you. We put you in the box, man. And we might drop you off somewhere. Not Walmart. And you see the brothers, man. Oh man, it's gonna be cool. I can't wait. Then you start wrapping that cloth around him. He's like, Mama. What happened, man? What happened to you, akhi? You went from being brave heart to scary heart.

The other lesson that we take in this month is how it brings this remembrance of the hereafter in just an incredible way. We stand in our prayers because we're reminded that we're gonna stand in front of Allah. We fast the entire day. We're called sa'ih. In the Quran, the one who travels for long distances. And the longer the day is, the sahabi used to love longer days for fasting. They didn't complain. Because it reminded them of Yawm al- Hashr. It reminded them on a day we're gonna stand and the sun is gonna be very close to our heads. And we're gonna be sweating.

And we know that the famous hadith says:

سَبْعَةٌ يُظِلُّهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظِلَّهِ يَوْمَ لَا ظِلَّ إِلَّا ظِلُّهُ

(Sahih al-Bukhari 660)

"Seven whom Allah will shade in His shade on the Day when there is no shade except His shade" (Sahih Muslim 1031). But there's other hadith to talk about those seven people, more than the seven. We're gonna be in the shade of Allah and that day we ask Allah to make us from them. We ask Allah to make us from them.

Lessons on Ease in Islam

We're encouraged to give sadaqah, to free ourselves from being connected to this dunya. We're encouraged to increase our ibadah. The more we worship Allah, the easier it is to fast. What I've noticed, the people who sleep all day or half the day, and just, you know, pray enough to get by. These are the people who complain the most. The people who are busy in ibadah, busy in dhikr, busy in their work, busy with their families, busy with some type of ibadah, then I find the fasting goes easier for them. Easier for them.

Another lesson we take from the month of Ramadan is the idea of how Islam brings and makes things easy for us.

يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ

"Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship" (Quran 2:185(. And Allah says:

يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَن يُخَفِّفَ عَنكُمْ ۚ وَخُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ ضَعِيفًا

"Allah wants to lighten for you your difficulties, and mankind was created weak" (Quran 4:28).

And that's why those verses about fasting, the entire edifice of usul of fiqh is found in these verses. It's absolutely incredible. Everything is there. You could teach usul from those verses. But Allah identifies the mashakkah. We have this beautiful axiom :

الْمَشَقَّةُ تَجْلِبُ التَّيْسِيرَ

- That hardship warrants ease. And the ulama they said, the hardships as identified by sharia are the following.

Number one, fear. Someone's scared, legitimately scared

تَأْوِيلُ قَرِيبٍ لَيْسَ الْبَعِيدِ

- legitimately scared. Number two, someone is sick. Someone's ill. What do we mean by mashakkah? That the rukhsah comes into play. That the ease, the dispensation comes in. So for example, someone who cannot stand, can they pray sitting? So the ruling changes for them.

الْمَشَقَّةُ تَجْلِبُ التَّيْسِيرَ

- hardship makes ease.

As Shafi'i said it in another way in the Risala, he said, if things become tight, Islam expands them for people. It's a very beautiful word. So fear, sickness, traveling is another one. People are traveling. Islam makes it easy for them.

يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَن يُخَفِّفَ عَنكُمْ وَيَضَعَ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالْأَغْلَالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ

- Allah says about the Prophet that he lifts the chains from the people (Quran 7:157). He removed the shackles from them.

Because the shariah, before the shariah of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is a shariah that has a lot of isr, a lot of difficulty. And we'll get to this in a minute as we finish. How do we talk about shariah to the American society on a greater level? We can take something from Ramadan. We can take something from Ramadan to share with others because it's crucial now to articulate these things to people. At a higher level, at a more dignified academic level, in the world of academia, yes. But even in the streets, even with the common people, how do we communicate to them? So we'll talk about that inshallah.

The other is al-kathra. Something is so much, so abundant, you can't escape it. It's hard. So Islam changes the ruling for you, to make it easy for you. And the last is al-qillah. Something that's so insignificant. That's why al- Qarafi, the great Maliki jurist, he said, for example, if someone has a small, small release of something najis, on their clothing, and they pray, their salah is maqboolah. Why?

أَجْلُ الْقِلَّةِ

- because of something which is not significant.

Applying the Principles of Ease

But let me break this down for you in a really cool way, sisters and brothers, in the month of Ramadan. So, how does this work? How do we apply this axiom? The majority of ulama said:

لَيْسَ الْقِيَاسُ بِالْمَشَقَّةِ جَائِزًا

- that it's not allowed to make qiyas with these things. But thank God for the Shafi'i method, alhamdulillah, who allowed us to. And this is the opinion of al-Azhar al-Sharif, by the way. That they allowed us. When we were studying iftah, in dawrat al-iftah. And that's important, because you're dealing with human beings.

When you study in an environment, hopefully here it's a little different, because you got people from, you know, mashallah, the hood. And the academic hood also. But what happens a lot of times, is our brothers and sisters go overseas and become extremely literate in speaking to the four corners of Khalil, and absolutely impoverished when it comes to speaking to the four corners of the globe. So what's the benefit of what you studied?

I remember once I was in Azhar, I met a convert brother. He told me, my entire goal in life is to destroy the Sufis. I said, bro, you're in the wrong country. That's one thing. And most of the Hussain's right behind us, you know. He said, no, this is my, this is what I want to do. I said, really? He said, akhi, where are you from? He said, I'm from Brooklyn. Fort Greene. And this is incredible, this is where Jay-Z's from, right? So Marcy. I was called Marcy. So I said to him, how many languages do you speak besides Arabic? So I speak, I speak, you know, two. I speak English and I speak Spanish. And then now I've learned Arabic.

So I said, out of all the things you've learned here, whoever you're studying with, don't you think there's maybe something more important than that? Like translating books in Spanish. Maybe going back to school and getting a PhD. Maybe contributing to Islam in America. He said, no, this is what I want to do. I want to fight Ahl al- Bid'ah. So I said to him what I said to you now. Bro, you're not able to live outside of the four books. The four corners of your book. You're going to absolutely do nothing for it. You're not going to do anything for anyone, bro. You have to be relevant to the people.

A Lesson in Compassion and Relevance

My first day in Dar al-Ifta, a woman came into Masjid al-Azhar who committed zina. So I just came out of school. I was gassed up. I'd been reading all my books. And, you know

فَرَائِضُ وَسُنَنٌ وَهَدْلُكُمْ سَبْعَةٌ وَفُرُونِيَّةٌ فِي بَدِي

- I was excited. I was pumped. So she came in Masjid al-Azhar. And she's like you know

السَّيِّدِ بِي أَنْ وَقَعْتُ فِي حَقٌّ مَعَ رَقُوبٍ

- you know the same line, I have a friend, and she did this. I was like, she did what? I was trying to be Mr.

لَا تَسْأَلُنَا أَشَانٌ تُبْرَكُومْ تَسْوُكُومْ

I was like

بِنْعَكِ اللَّحْكَةِ مِشْ إِيهِ اللَّحْكَةِ بِنْعَنَاكِ؟ وَأَنْتَ مِنْ فِينِ؟

, Shaykh. Right? And she was like Yeah? Just answer the question. She was like, yeah, well, you know

دَرَعَ

- right? You know, something happened. So I was like,

لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ

- I started going off, right?

There was a shaykh

طَبْعًا مُحَمَّد سَعْدِ مُحَمَّد سَعْدِ

- in Egypt it's a Muhammad Saad. Muhammad Saad from Mansoura. He said to me, honestly, he said to me, shut up. You know, he told me, shut up, man.

أَنْدَ وَرَاقٍ فِي الْأَزْهَرِ

- I was like, what? Okay, fine. He had the red hat on, I was like, whatever, Mr. Red Hat.

Then he came to me, he said, brother, is this your first day here? First week? First day? I said, this is my first hour. He's like, yeah, that's what I thought. Go sit down and be quiet. Then he answered her question. She started crying, you know, and then he helped her out. And then he asked her, were you raped? Were you sexually abused? You know, did someone harm you? Were you forced into it? You know, just don't say what you did, but just say no to those questions because if that's the case, I need to find someone that can help you. That's the shaykh.

Then she left and he said, akhi, akhi, come here, come here. He said, I want to invite you to my home for mahshi. When an Egyptian says that, it means you did something really wrong. So I said, fine. He said, brother, he said, you know, in Azhar, you're good at studying books, but the blood in those books is cold and blue. Here, the blood in the books that I read is red and warm. So different. Has a different taste.

So Islam gives us this mashaqat, helps us to be relevant, so that we can have a role to play even in American society. We talk about that religiously in a secular world. Here comes a religion which seeks to ease a relationship with God and to facilitate your ability to feel confident in yourself. Islam is not a religion that bases itself on making people feel dominated, but it empowers people to transcend the evils of their souls. You don't think that's relevant? Ask us.

The Wisdom Behind Rulings on Fasting and Prayer

To people now, so, we say in the month of Ramadan, why doesn't a woman have to make up her prayers? Because of kathra. It's a mashaqah. But why do you have to make up the fasting? How many times do you pray in a day? Five. How many times do you fast in a day? Once. Maybe someone will say, well, that's fard, and that's fard. How come I gotta do that one, and I gotta do this one? Right? Or, you know, excuse me, why do I have to perform this one and not that one? Right? With a comma.

We'll say to them, because the first with prayers, Allah recognizes for us and identifies for us that it's an abundance, it's hard on you to make up five prayers every day. So, mashaqah tajlibu tayseer - hardship warrants ease. But fasting is only once a day, so it's easy for you to make it up. That's how it works. Then you see, subhanallah, you see the rahmah of Allah.

One of the students I had, we studied together usul al-fiqh, and I asked him, what did you learn from usul al- fiqh? He said, rahmah. I learned Allah's mercy. I said, subhanallah, I was gonna say some big, you know, legal answer about qiyas al-ilal and all this stuff, and the guy gave this rahmah.

The Need for Literacy and Relevance in Islamic Studies

The last lesson that we take as American Muslims, very crucial for us here, is that we should be able to take these incredible principles found in Quran. We should understand them, and we need literacy. If we're to look at, if we take, for example, Bloom's Taxonomy, and we apply it to Islamic studies in America, for the most part, we're not anywhere up past one or two. In fact, some of the madaris are still at rote learning, just memorizing everything, just regurgitating everything.

You know, al-Qarafi said that, you know, regurgitating books is

ظُلُمٌ مُضِلُّ

- oppressive and misleading. Because these books, many of them, most of the masail, in fact, fiqhiyah, were written in order to achieve the maslaha for the people that they lived amongst. Now in America, if we're gonna translate a book of fiqh, I don't think we should begin, yeah, Mawlana, you can correct me if I'm wrong, with, you know, the hadd, and the discussion

about what is the hadd, is it jami'ah, mani'ah, is it, you know, this, is it that, is it allowed to use, that doesn't apply to anyone in America anymore.

And that's why for the Malikis, we love the risalah of Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani. Why? Because it was written before that age. You know, he just starts. He says, he doesn't say :

الْحَاشِيَةُ عَلَى الْحَاشِيَةِ عَلَى الْحَاشِيَةِ عَلَى الْحَاشِيَةِ وَهَذَا وَهَذَا

وَالاخْتِلَافُ بَيْنَ هَذَا وَضَعَ وَضُوءٍ، أَمَّا الْوُضُوءُ فَمَنْ وَضَعَ وُضُوءَ - one of the mashayikh, he said, one of the mutun we found in Egypt had seventy-three commentaries on one text in one, like, one series. No one can study like that now.

So we learn from the month of Ramadan, we take these important universal principles. Being mindful of Allah. Being faithful to Allah. Observing this triangular approach towards religion, of the mind, the heart, and the body. And we should be able to gain literacy of this. Not simply rote learning. How many people have you met? I'm sure Dr. Hatem. I've met them.

In Egypt we had this brother who memorized the Khalil, memorized the Muwatta, and memorized the Alfiyah. So I remember one day, we're in class and he said to the sheikh :

وَأَلْ وَنِدَى وَالتَّنْوِينِ بِجَرِّ وَمُسْنَدٍ لِاسْمٍ تَمِيزٌ حَصَلْ

- then the sheikh said, good, what does that mean? He said, I don't know. I don't know what it means. He said, then why did you memorize it?

Of course we need to memorize as Dr. Hijazi who made us memorize the Alfiyah, encourages from Imbaba, memorize but understand. So now in the American Muslim context, we have to appreciate efforts of places like Zaytuna who are trying to raise the level of the discourse amongst Muslims in America and have enough guts to invite non-Muslims to speak here which I've seen a number of times, alhamdulillah. Intellectuals outside of just the standard Islamic core, right? That will help us to look at our religion in a brighter way to gain synthesis as he talks about Maslow.

That how can we speak to a populace if we don't know how to, you don't even understand what's going on in their world. It's not possible, it's not possible that Islam is going to become deeply rooted in America if we don't speak to the problems and the solutions of America through our religion. Look at Casey Anthony, the Casey Anthony trial. Look at what happened in New York with the sexting fiasco. How many op-eds were written by Imams in America? How many op-eds were written by Rabbis?

How many Christians took the time, Christian Smith, genius! Wrote this book, Souls in Transition about young evangelical Christians and their struggle with faith, right? That's where we need to be as Muslims but in order to do that we have to have a basic understanding of Islam, literacy and then a good understanding of the society that we live in and then we'll be able to speak to people, have a multi-disciplinary approach to Islamic studies.

The Importance of Merging Traditional and Contemporary Knowledge

Believe me, al-Azhar cannot handle America. Saudi Arabia cannot handle America. Damascus cannot handle America. Mauritania and Yemen cannot handle America but if we can merge them together, we can then really serve people in a much better way. And that's why one of my friends who graduated from al-Azhar when he

Extracted Text

Understanding People and Society

What books of sociology can imams read that are written by Muslim academics? That can really help them understand the problems of young American Muslims? You know, really, read that book by Christian Smith. Christian Smith wrote two incredible books. One of them is called, Souls in Transition. He is a gifted scholar of religion but he's also a gifted sociologist. He actually went into the streets and started asking young evangelical Christian kids, how do you feel about church? How do you relate with the preacher? Does the message work for you? Why doesn't it work for you? And he wrote an entire book about it.

Frank Luntz, you know, we definitely have our differences with Dr. Frank Luntz, right? But read What Americans Really Think. As an imam, I benefited tremendously from that book. Why? Because he tells you about American people, what they're up to. Sixty percent of Americans are up before Fajr. That's a good quality. You tell that Muslim, he's like, I don't understand why we're in this situation. Well, sixty percent of us can't wake up for akhirah. Sixty percent of them can't wake up for dunya. That's the difference.

So, I would encourage you and that's why I honestly, my teacher encouraged me to go get a degree first from a Western institution. And I believe that one of the conditions of an imam in America is that they should have a degree from a Western institution, right? And then go and study overseas. And Dr. Sherman Jackson told me, when you go study overseas, study like this, with one eye open. And don't be scared to be constructively critical. Just because we say the word tradition, doesn't mean it's sacred. And there are things that we have to engage as Muslims in America, right? When we're forging an identity in this month of Ramadan, of course, by keeping it relevant, right? Forging an identity to be respectable and efficient and beneficial to the people around us.

The Example of Ali ibn Abi Talib

So, Ibn al-Qayyim gives a good example. I'm sorry, it might be a little rough. You find it in Sahih al-Bukhari (Sahih al-Bukhari 3081), when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, told Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, go and intercept this woman in the desert who has military secrets of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. So, he went to her. It's in Sahih al-Bukhari. Hadith sahih. You probably read it and said, what is going on here? Because Ali gets a little ghetto. Yeah, he does.

He comes to her and he says, hey, give me the secrets. And she's like, and of course the translation does not do it justice. We have the English translation might be full and protein-based when it comes to vocabulary, but the emotion and the meaning is anorexic. Because we'll translate, oh, pardon me, I don't have any papers with me at all. But that's not, she's like, I've got no papers. That's the feeling, right? And then he said to her, yeah, you do. Give me the papers, right? And then she said, I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just an innocent Bedouin Arab woman traversing the desert all by myself. Hello.

So then he said to her, if you don't give me those papers, I'm going to rip your clothes off and take them. It's in Bukhari. You might say, oh God. But see, you can't be more pious than the sahaba. That's one thing as Muslims in America we have to be very careful. The sahaba were so comfortable with the religion and so aware of the futility of this dunya that they could keep it real.

So when he said that, what do you think she did? Hello. Right? Ibn al-Qayyim said, this is the art of a mufti. He said, he knows. He said, first of all, he wouldn't have done it. He wouldn't have done it. But he knows how to speak to his people. What's the worst thing you could tell a Bedouin woman, right, in the desert? Don't ask me about human rights and stuff, man. I'm just, it's a lot of Sabil and Misal - example and illustration. It's that.

He said, that's the example of someone, I'm not saying go do this, of someone who knows his people. He's able to speak to his people. He's able to communicate in a language that the people understand, not in a foreign language. So this, Zaytuna, is an incredible opportunity to learn how to synthesize the tradition, to bridge it with what's happening now in this age of ours. Because without tradition, we become like sheep and things just become completely chaotic. So the tradition is definitely an important compass. It's a GPS.

But at the same time, people like Shaykh Hamza, people like Shaykh Zaid, people like Imam Dawood, people like Dr. Hatem, understand that Islamic studies has gone through some very serious problems in the past. Especially over the last 150 years, 200 years. And even prior to that, and that there are some things that you're going to have to have enough bravery and strength to go it alone and test the waters a little bit.

Practical Advice for Ramadan

So may Allah accept this month of Ramadan. There's a few things you should do quickly. Number one is always check your intention during the month. Number two is increase your discussions about the hereafter. Decrease your discussions about this dunya, unless you have to work or whatever. Don't go to Cisco and say, you know, I'm not allowed to talk about dunya. It's not going to work, right?

Number three, try to fix any problems you have with your families. That's incredibly important. People, I'm shocked in the Muslim community haven't spoken to their children for ten years. And they think it's great. Because why? He married a white girl. We're not going to speak to him now. Brother, hello. No, you're not white. You're an imam. It's like the rhetoric has blinded him, right? I'm still white. I just happen to be a white imam.

So fix the problems in your family. Call your parents. Tell them you love them. There's barakah. When I started memorizing Quran, I could memorize half a page. I went to the sheikh to complain. He said, how's your relationship with your mom? I was like, dude, she's a kafir, dude. Who cares, man? He even told me, he said, you know, these people are going to hell, man. I was hardcore. My parents were kafirs. He told me, he said, no, no.

Then every time I'd come, I remember I finished memorizing the Quran. How's your mother? Finally, I said, why do you keep asking about my mother? He's like, listen, you know why you can't memorize? Because you have a problem with your parents. He's like, you need to go fix this problem. When I fixed that problem, subhanallah, four pages a day.

So, there is barakah in the family, the aqarib, your neighbors. Also, we should take this time to invite our non-Muslim buddies, man. Our neighbors, our friends, right? To participate in our homes. And if they invite us to go to the church, go. Right? We should take this opportunity to share.

Three Components: Knowledge, Worship, and Activism

Finally, we should try to have three important things. Knowledge, ibadah, and activism. These are the three components that we find in the month of Ramadan. We see what's happening in the world now. We see the human rights of people in Syria being violated in a way which is absolutely indescribable. As Muslims, we should not neglect these things. We cannot neglect these kind of things we see around us.

May Allah bless this important institution, bless you, and make your, inshallah, siyam totally filled with barakah. We ask Him (بِجِوَارٍ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - bi jiwaari Muhammad sallaa Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) - to unite us with Him, in the company of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

JazakAllah khair. Thank you very much. Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.