Purpose of Fasting

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe. And peace and blessings be upon the honorable prophets and messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and upon his family and companions. And peace and blessings be upon him. Next, Allah SWT told us why he sent Ramadan. Allah SWT said, Ya ayyuhalladheena amanu kutibra alaykumu sriyamu kama kutibra ala alladheena min qablikum la'allakum tattaqoon Allah said which means, O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may become muttaqoon. la'allakum tattaqoon So that you may become muttaqoon. What is taqwa? Taqwa is that state of mind and heart where a person is concerned about Allah SWT's pleasure in everything that they say or they do. No matter how small, no matter how big, the person's question, there's a tape running in the back of the mind, the platform on which the whole person's software decision making and communication software runs is taqwa, which is, is Allah going to be pleased with what I'm going to say or not? So say if I'm going to, for example, if I'm going to say something to Nimab, before I say it, ask myself, what I'm planning to say to her, is this likely to please Allah or not? So if, for example, if I'm thinking of saying something critical about something, somebody to her, that person is not here, which is called backbiting. So if I'm planning to do that, which is also called most of our social life, so if I'm planning to do that, then I ask myself, is Allah going to be pleased with this? Answer is no, so I don't do it. Now the beauty of that is that when a person makes an intention to do something evil and changes that intention because of the fear of Allah's subhanahu wa ta'ala's displeasure, Allah's subhanahu wa ta'ala has, causes a good deed, hasana, to be written in their account. See the mercy of Allah, Jalla Jallalu, you haven't done anything, just change your mind. I had a thought in my mind, I think I'm going to do that, then I said, no, no, no, I can't do that because Allah will not be pleased. That's it. It takes like one second, it has, there's no effort, energy involved, nothing involved, but we get what hasana. What is the value of hasana? What is the value of one good deed? The value of one good deed on the day of judgment can be the difference between Jannah and Jahannam. One single good deed, right? If a person has one extra one, then the scale of good deeds is heavier, so they go to Jannah. If he does not have that one, then he has, he has, he has a problem. And how did I get this good deed? By being conscious of Allah's subhanahu wa ta'ala's pleasure. Will Allah be pleased or not? Right? So taqwa is to have this condition of heart and mind where everything we do, whether in public, whether in private, whether in secret, whether in a place where we think nobody is watching us because Allah is always watching us. We are concerned only about the pleasure of Allah. To bring about this situation and to bring about this condition Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent this month of Ramadan. Now how does Ramadan achieve that? It achieves it by a very simple and beautiful principle. And that principle is that from just before dawn to sunset, we are not allowed to do what is normally halal. Right? Eating, drinking, intimacy with your spouses is normally halal. But we are not allowed to do that during this period. Now if somebody says, why not? What's the answer? Why not? Why not? I'm saying, for example, this is a common question. A person who is not a Muslim, who is probably interested in Islam, so they tell you, okay, you guys are not doing this from this time to this time. Why? Fasting, why? Yes? To cleanse your soul. Yeah? To demonstrate faith to Allah. Demonstrate faith to Allah? Kind of yes, but what is the real answer? Discipline. Because Allah said so. That's it.