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in the name of Allah most gracious most
merciful we thank Allah subhana tala for
the blessing of Islam and we send peace
and blessings to all of the prophets to
the prophet Abraham to Moses to Jesus
and to the final Prophet Muhammad peace
and blessings be upon them all and we
greet you with the greeting words of the
righteous alhamdulillah the month of
Ramadan is a time of Mercy it is a mercy
upon the body it is a mercy upon the
mind it is a mercy upon the family it is
a mercy upon the household it's a mercy
on the community and it is a mercy for
all people throughout this planet and we
have to recognize
that the greatest Mercy that has come to
us is through the prophet Muhammad s Ali
wasallam who came representing the Lord
of mercy so Ramadan is not a punishment
Ram Ramadan is not an experation or a
purging for our sins in many ways of
life fasting imak is a form of punishing
oneself if we thought the wrong things
if we did the wrong actions in many
systems
a person would then punish themsel
through fasting in order to clean thems
from the sins but in this case it is a
balanced system so that the believer is
submitting to the creator of the heavens
and the Earth they are going through a
purification process but at the same
time it is not a punishment to the body
and so in order for us to gain the best
of the virtues of the month of Ramadan
to tr truly understand this then we need
to take a slight review of the teachings
of the Prophet Muhammad s Ali wasallam
to see how this affects us and even
gives Mercy to the Believers inside of
this blessed month we have recognized
that Allah subhana wa ta'ala the creator
of the heavens and the Earth has
revealed in the second chapter of the
Quran in verse
185
that whoever uh is sick and on a journey
then they are able to make up their fast
at another Point Allah then
says that Allah then tells us he
wants ease he intends ease for you and
does not want to make things difficult
so from this and the same of the Prophet
peace and blessings be upon Him Muslim
Scholars understood that the fasting the
rules of fasting which normally applies
to those Muslims who have reached
puberty to those who are sane those who
are are male or female that it would not
apply to somebody who is somebody who is
sick and it is important for us to try
to understand what this sickness is
because great Scholars of Islam have
shown us that mid in this case is not
just queasiness a person may go through
a state of dizziness without having
eaten food for a period of time if we're
not used to this we may feel
uneasy we may feel some grumbling inside
of our stomach we may feel a little bit
tired at work this is not Mar this is
not sick sickness is that uh issue or or
that uh Calamity in the body where the
person is
incapacitated so that person is vomiting
in a high fever it is something where
there is a danger actually to the health
o of that individual so therefore we
should be serious about sickness about
being mared and I can recall um one of
our very Pious Muslim uh brothers who
was working in the month of Ramadan in a
factory welding where the Flames of the
fire were coming out and normally people
have to drink a lot of water during the
day to be able to function in a factory
but he kept his fast he never broke his
fast because of his submission to Allah
subhana wa tala he felt a little bit
dizzy he felt tired he felt thirsty but
he remembered that the fire of Janam is
stronger than any fire you can find in a
factory from a welder or any job I
remember traveling in between uh jida
and
Al and on the bus were people from Yemen
and Afghanistan very serious Muslim
brothers were with me it was really hot
and I was new at fasting and the Flames
literally of the heat were coming up out
of the desert and we were fasting but
nobody even considered to break their
fast because of their resolve to submit
to Allah subhana tala and I realize that
this Dean takes us out of our body in
the sense that the body no longer
controls us but we gain control of the
body this then gives us the strength to
control our bodies outside of the month
of Ramadan so the Ayah is saying if you
are sick
or if you are traveling and the have
shown us that when a person has left
their vicinity and they would be in a
condition which is considered
musaf that they are actually on the road
and they are traveling then they also
have the option of breaking fast
and tells us that at another point after
the month that that person could make up
the fast but it is important for us to
try to understand what this means and
there's a lot of discussion about this
but to be safe the safe position taken
by many of of the great Scholars of
Islam is that saf is not masak sa is not
just difficulty because people would
look at safer and they say Okay
traveling is when you're traveling on a
camel or you're traveling on a horse and
I fly between my city and I take Air
Egypt I take Saudia ears I take Air
Pakistan I take American Airlines this
is not traveling on a horse this is not
traveling on a camel so it is not masaka
but what we have to realize is that in
the time of the Prophet peace and
blessings be upon him his companions
came to him and they said we have
strength while we are traveling and we
fast while we are traveling the prophet
Sall wasallam showed them there is no
extra blessing for fasting while you are
traveling he also showed them to his
example that you should break your fast
while you are traveling we recognize the
fact that Safa itself has many hidden
difficulties and to truly benefit from
this month we need to be in a full state
of where we are in our vicinity people
find difficulty in the change of time
they find difficulty in the change of
environment and all of this can fall
under suffer so the believer has the
option it's not compulsory he has the
option to break his fast while he is
traveling this then would uh be H uh
fulfilled later on by making up uh the
days also if there are older people who
are not able to fast then they can pay a
fidia they can pay H uh they can feed a
poor person uh for every day that they
do not uh fast so if Ramadan is 29 days
or 30 days and they can feed 29 or 30
poor people and they can make up uh for
their fast if a person is sick uh
permanently and and they can also feed
that poor person uh for 29 or for 30
days so we see the blessing within the
fast that everybody can be involved in
the fast and not necessarily those who
are the strongest and the most
physically fit but all Muslims can gain
the blessings of the fasting in the
month of
Ramadan pregnant women and also women
who are uh feeding uh their children
children also have the option to break
their fast because the pregnancy would
affect uh that person's health the child
is taking from the mother taking
vitamins taking strength and so in many
cases the mother gets very weak or the
mother doesn't have have the ability to
continue to sustain the child so
therefore she also uh can break her fast
and uh she can make it up a nursing
mother can also uh uh uh break her fast
and it is advised Able by the scholars
if she can afford to pay fidya to feed a
poor person she can do that as well
women who are in their monthly periods
who are in the H they also uh do not
fast and they can make up uh the days in
a period of time outside of the month of
Ramadan so therefore we see that Ramadan
is a time of great blessing but is a
time of balance it is a time when the
whole of the ummah
of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him are encouraged to be involved in the
fasting so not only is it for people who
are physically fit but it is also for
people who have enough strength and they
have enough H intelligence and they are
prepared to go through uh that day of
the fasting in the month of Ramadan
alhamdulillah Allah subhana tala has
blessed everybody in this umah so even a
person who is not able to carry out the
fast a person who falls sick can still
get the blessings of the month of
Ramadan they don't leave the month of
Ramadan but they are able to break their
fast it is advisable however that a
person who uh is breaking their fast in
the month of Ramadan that you know when
they do that that they should break
their fast in a discreet way they
shouldn't do it in the presence of other
Muslims because uh people might
misunderstand even non-im Muslims who
are looking at our community might say
why is that Muslim fasting and another
one is not fasting so if a person is
sick or on a journey or for any of the
prescribed reasons uh is breaking his or
her fast they should do it in a very
discreet way and recognize that we are
fasting not only for ourself but the
example of fasting in the month of
Ramadan is one that is affecting people
from all rocks of life it also affects
non-muslims who are watching you if you
are working on the job if you are at
school if you are walking in the streets
if you if you are in any type of
activity in any environment and you fast
you actually become a representative of
Islam your iMac is a way for you as a
Muslim to deliver the message to other
people and to gain the blessing
blessings in this life and the blessings
in the Hereafter Ramadan is a mercy
Ramadan is a balanced time for all of
the Believers it is a time when Allah
subhana tala has prescribed A system
that we function of under but he has
given us exceptions to the rule and we
need to look at this that the exceptions
are Mercy from Allah subhana wa tala and
if we have this exception we should take
the exception
so if we are traveling we should benefit
from the fact that we can break our fast
this would give us strength to be
continue to continue on in the rest of
the month if we try to do more than what
we are physically able to do we may not
benefit from all of the virtues and all
of the blessings in this sacred month
alhamdulillah the prophet Muhammad peace
be upon Him gave
us he gave us the
Nation the balanced Nation the just
nation and this fast will give us the
energy inshallah and the blessings to
remain part of this umah I leave you
with these thoughts and I ask Allah to
have mercy on me and
you