Sheikh Ahmed Bermejo’s full seminar on Ramadan

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SEMINAR

THE RAMADAN FAST SHEIKH AHMED BERMEJO

• RAMADAN FAST FIQH
• FAST REWARD
• WISDOM OF RAMADAN
• RAMADAN   MEANING FIQH OF FASTING: The first thing we are going to talk about is going to be the fiqh of fasting, the jurisprudence of fasting, the rules of fasting; we are going to do it in a short and simple way, because, although it may be the most important part of fasting, I do not want to focus this whole afternoon on it, as I would like to talk about the wisdom of fasting, the meaning and secrets of fasting for the month of Ramadan.
  Perhaps, out of courtesy to the Qur’an, the first thing we have to do when talking about fasting is to quote the verses known as the verses of fasting, in which Allah says: “O you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed for you just as it was prescribed for those who preceded you. May you be afraid (of Allah)! For a certain number of days, set for this purpose. But those who are sick or traveling may do so, in equal numbers, on other days. And those who are able to fast (do not do so or break their fast) the remedy will be to feed the poor. But whoever does good spontaneously will be better for him. And fasting is better for you, if you know. In the month of Ramadan, the Qur’an was sent down, guidance for men and clear proofs of Guidance and Discernment; Therefore whoever among you sees the month, let him fast; and those who are sick or traveling should do so at another time, for the same number of days. Allah wants for you what is easy and not what is difficult, but He wants you to complete the number (of days) and to proclaim the greatness of Allah for having guided you. May you be grateful! And when My servants ask you about Me… I am near and I respond to the request of the one who asks, when he asks Me; therefore, may they answer Me and believe in Me, may they be rightly guided! On the night of the day of fasting it is permissible for you to have sexual intercourse with your wives; They are a garment for you and you are a garment for them. Allah knew that you were betraying yourselves, He turned to you with His favor and forgave you; so unite with them and seek what Allah has commanded you. And eat and drink until, from the black thread (of the night), you distinctly distinguish the white thread of the dawn; Then complete the fast until evening. But if you retreat in the mosques, do not go to cohabit with them while it lasts. These are the limits of Allah, keep away from them. Thus Allah makes His Signs clear to men. I hope they are saved!” (Baqara, 183 – 188).

What is fasting really, how do we as Muslims understand fasting?: What is fasting? What does it mean to fast? In Arabic, the word we use for fasting is saum. This word, really what it means in its broadest version, its meaning according to the Arabic language is: to abstain from something, to stop doing something, not to do something. But if someone asks, what is Ramadan? What is the definition of Ramadan fasting? What is the meaning of the word Sama, or yasumu, according to the sharia’ of Islam. The correct answer would be: Fasting in the month of Ramadan is: abstaining from eating, drinking, and having sexual intercourse, from dawn to sunset, with a sincere intention. Another very similar classical definition is: “Abstaining, with the intention of approaching Allah, from the appetites of the stomach and private parts from the time of Fajr prayer until the time of sunset prayer.” As we have seen, in the two definitions we have given of what it means to fast, we find the element of intention. Intention is the key, and not only in fasting, but in all acts of worship, intention must be present. To do prayer, the first thing is to set the intention, to do wudu the first thing is to set the intention. Therefore, and as we all know, the first thing is always the intention, as the Messenger of Allah said, salla allaahu alayhi wa sallam, in the first hadith recorded by Imam al-Bukhari in his Saheeh: “Actions are only by intentions (they are linked to intentions), and each man obtains the result of his intention; so that he whose emigration was to get something from this world, or to marry a woman, his emigration will have been for that reason for which he emigrated.” So this issue of intention leads us to the following, if someone were to ask, “If I do not eat, drink, or have sexual intercourse from dawn to sunset, is I considered to have fasted?” According to Islam no, and this is applicable to Muslims and non-Muslims, there are those who think that this is only applicable to those who are not Muslims, but this is not so; How can it be applied to Muslims, you may ask? Well, very easy; You’re a Muslim, okay, let’s use this example, you get up at one o’clock in the afternoon, and you say, ah, since I haven’t eaten anything, I’m not going to eat or drink or have sex for the rest of the day, until the sun goes down and that’s how I’ve fasted this day.

This is not valid, why?
Because there has not been an intention and the intention must always be set, before dawn; Therefore, the time when the intention is set is always at night, before going to bed, since it is possible that you do not get up before dawn, if that happens and you had not set the intention at night, then you can no longer fast.

The acts in Sharia’ are divided into 5 categories; obligatory, sunnah or recommended, undesirable, forbidden and permitted.

1. Obligatory (fard – wayib): It is that which if you do it you have a reward and if you stop doing it it carries punishment; such as believing in Allah and His Messenger, praying, paying zakat, etc.
2. Commendable (mandub, muhstahabb): It is that which if you do it has a reward but if you do not do it does not carry punishment; such as the dosrakats of Fajar before the salat of Subh.
3. Undesirable (makruh): It is that which if you do it does not carry punishment but if you stop doing it it has a reward; such as reciting Qur’an in the Ruku’ while doing Salat.
4. Forbidden (haram): It is that which if you do it carries punishment and if you do not do it it has a reward; such as eating pork or drinking wine.
5. Allowed (mubah): It is something that can be done or not done, it is called mubah or even halal.
   It’s something that if you do it is not rewarded or punished and if you do not it is not rewarded or punished.
   But, if you do something permissible with the intention of worshipping Allah then you are rewarded.

TYPES OF FASTING Let’s start then with the obligatory fast, when is fasting obligatory:
1. The fast of the month of Ramadan, the 29 or 30 days of the ninth month of the lunar calendar.
2. Make up the days that you have fasted from us in Ramadan or from any other obligatory fast that for some reason you have fulfilled for us, for example the one who has been sick for a number of days and has not fasted, the woman who has had menstruation, etc., it is obligatory that she make up those days, so that those days, they become obligatory fasting for him.
3. Fasting as expiation (kaffara) for transgressions you have committed that require such compensation; such as not fasting the month of Ramadan intentionally without any valid excuse, or breaking the fast on some day of the month of Ramadan, without a valid excuse, etc.

4. Swearing by Allah that you are going to fast one day, that makes that day obligatory to fast.
For example, if someone says, “I swear by Allah that I will fast tomorrow,” then that day becomes obligatory; And the same applies to any kind of act of worship.
5. Pronouncing dhihar against your wife, which means that the one who has pronounced it has to fast for two months in a row (moles) before he can have intercourse with her again.
The Dhihar is equating the wife with a member of the family of those considered mahram, such as the mother or sister, thereby claiming that the wife has become sexually inadmissible to the husband.
These are, according to most of the ‘ulamas of the madhhab al Maliki, the obligatory fasts.
It is important to emphasize here, that whenever we talk about Fiqh, we do it according to our madhhab, which as we know is madhhab al maliki, since in other madhahib, these categories are different, therefore I repeat, everything we say here when we talk about Fiqh, is Fiqh Al Maliki.
There are also fasts that are sunna, or recommended, among them we find the following:

1. Fasting in the inviolable months (dhul quidah, dhul Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab, this does not mean that one has to fast the whole month, but some days of those months).
2. Fasting in the month of Sha’ban, which is the month before Ramadan.
3. The first ten days of the month of Dhul Hijjah, for those who are not doing Hajj.
4. Fasting on the day of Arafah, which as we know is the ninth day of the month of Dhul Hijjah, as long as you are not performing Hajj, if you are doing Hajj, you should not fast on that day.
5. Fast three days of each month.
   Normally they are the so-called “Ayamul Baid” white days, which are the days whose nights have a full moon, which are either the 12th, 13th and 14th, or according to another opinion they are 13th, 14th and 15th, the two opinions are strong; But this does not mean that the recommended fast is that three days, better if it is on those three days, but it can be any three days of the month.
6. The first ten days of the month of Muharram, especially the tenth day which is the day of Ashura, and if it is accompanied by another day, whether before or after it is even better.
7. Mondays and Thursdays.
8. Six days of the month of shawal.
   The month of shawal is the month after Ramadan; Here it is important to make a clarification, which is the following; There is a hadith, valid and recognized, in which the Messenger of Allah, saws, said: “Whoever fasts Ramadan and then follows it with six days of shawal is as if he has fasted all year round.”

Okay, so far we are doing well and we all agree, what happens is that there are times when this fast, the six days of shawal, gets a little out of hand. And I say this because today it has reached a point where it has become almost obligatory, there are many people who when Eid has passed, since fasting is forbidden on the day of Eid, ask you: What, you are fasting right? Are you fasting the six days of Shawal? and if you say no, they look at you totally surprised. When Imam Malik was asked about this hadith, he remained silent, not because he did not know it or know it; but he remained silent, they asked him again until he confessed that he did not like the way this matter was taking among the Muslims, since they were turning the fast of those six days into something almost obligatory, it was becoming the thing to fast the month of Ramadan, a feast day, and then fast the following six days; and that was what Imam Malik wanted to avoid, may Allah be pleased with him, and notice that this is not a new matter, but it was already in the time of Imam Malik. Fasting these six days entails an enormous reward, and I want to make it clear that I do not want to prevent you from fasting or anything like that, I encourage people to fast, but as something recommended, and besides, you have to say something else, which is a very common mistake; The six days of shawal are not the six days immediately following the Eid day, but six days throughout the month, and according to most of the ‘ulamas of the madhhab, those days are valid for you to make up for the days of Ramadan that you have made for us, as long as your first intention is to make up for it. So with these six of Shawal, in addition to getting the huge reward as if you had fasted all year, you can also recover the days you owe, so it is an ease to do so. And it is also important to emphasize the words about these days that Qadi ‘Iyad says, that when he speaks of fasts that are recommended, or that are sunna, he mentions six days of the month of Shawal and then adds: if one fasts for the merit that is mentioned in the hadith, not to make it a sunna. We have already seen the types of obligatory fasting, we have also seen those that are sunnas and recommended, regarding voluntary fasting it is usually defined as: all that fasting that you do without a certain reason, without being within the recommended days or within those that are prohibited.

Undesirable FASTING:

1. Fasting continuously, i.e. fasting every day, this according to Madhhab al-Maliki is undesirable.
   It can also be understood as fasting for two days consecutively, without breaking the fast between ambiguities.
2. Fasting on the day of ‘arafah, for the one who is performing Hajj, some even say that this is forbidden.
3. Fasting on the last day of the month of Shaban, which is the month before Ramadan, known as the day of doubt.
   Okay, it’s undesirable to fast on this day if you’re doing it as a precaution, i.e., saying to yourself, well, I’m going to fast just in case it’s Ramadan.
   If you are certain that it is not Ramadan and you owe a day of fasting last year, then you fast on the 29th, without it being undesirable or anything, since that day that you owe is an obligatory fast.

And finally, it remains to be seen what the forbidden fasts are, what days, at what times fasting is forbidden, or haram:

1. Fasting on the day of ‘Eid al-Fitr, which is the day after the end of Ramadan, i.e. the 1st day of the month of Shawal.
   1 day, not 3 eh, 1.
2. Fasting on the day of ‘Eid al-Adha.
3. Fasting on the three days of Attahsriq, which are the three days following the day of ‘Eid al-Adha.
   There is an opinion that says that there are two forbidden things, that the third is only undesirable.
4. The fasting of the menstruating woman or the parturient, as long as they do not see that they are clean before Fajr, if they are clean before Fajr, then they can fast.
5. The fast of the one who fears for his own life because of fasting, the one who fears that if he fasts it may be a risk to his life, then he is forbidden to fast.

So much for the different types of fasting that exist, and whoever wants to fast on any day, as long as it is not forbidden or undesirable, will get a great reward for it.
CONDITIONS THAT MAKE FASTING OBLIGATORY We will now look at some rules of fasting, rules that apply to all types of fasting, whether it is obligatory, sunnah, recommendable, or voluntary.

The first thing is to see the conditions that make fasting obligatory, that is, the requirements that if a person meets, from that moment the fast of Ramadan becomes obligatory for him, there are six.

1. Being a Muslim.
   That is, that the Message of Islam has come to you and you have accepted it.
2. Be sane.
   That is, to be in full possession of your mental faculties, not to have any type of mental deficiency.
3. Having reached puberty.
4. Have the health to do it.
   As we have said before, fasting is forbidden for one who fears for his life because of fasting.
5. To be a resident, that is, not to be on a trip, since travel, as we will see later, is one of the excuses that allows you to break the fast.
6. Not be menstruating or with the puerperium blood in the case of women.

To these six conditions some ‘ulamas also add as a seventh that the month of Ramadan has entered and to have knowledge of it, i.e., that if you do not know that Ramadan has come, it is not obligatory for you to fast.
So for every person who meets these conditions, fasting in the month of Ramadan is obligatory for him, whoever does not meet them can fast, there is no impediment in it (except in the case of the menstruating woman and the person who fears that fasting may end her life, in these cases, as we have seen previously it is forbidden).
So we already know when to fast, we know who has to fast, let’s go now and see what is obligatory while fasting.
A person is a Muslim, he has reached puberty, he is sane, he is healthy, he is not travelling, and he knows that tomorrow the month of Ramadan begins, what does that person have to do?
How does he prepare and then, when he starts fasting, what is obligatory for him to do?
OBLIGATIONS OF FASTING

1. The intention, the intention in his night as Ibn ‘Ashir says.
   The intention is set from after Maghrib until before Faqar on the first day of Ramadan, it is better to do it at night, lest you do not get up at Fajar and you already mess up on the first day and start on the wrong foot, because if the intention is not set before Fajar that day of fasting is invalid.
   In Maliki madhbab, although it is not mandatory to renew that intention every day, it is advisable to do so; unless you interrupt your fast, whether due to illness, travel, menstruation in women…; in that case when you start fasting again it is obligatory to put the intention again before Fayar on that day on which you resume your fast.
2. Avoid and abstain from any type of sexual act, whether with your partner, with any other person or animal or you with your own body.
   Here it is important to mention the following, intentionally causing an ejaculation or orgasm is clear that you break the fast; Now, if that ejaculation or that orgasm occurs during sleep unconsciously, then it does not break the fast; You do Gusul and you’re done, but the fast is still valid and you don’t have to make up that day.
   And there are people who do not know this, for example you go to bed after subh, and you have a nocturnal pollution, nothing happens, that does not invalidate the fast, nor does it break it, nor do you have to pay kaffara, or a fidya, or make up the day, or anything at all.
   You make a gusul and continue fasting as if nothing had happened here.
3. Abstain from any solid food or liquid that can reach the stomach, either through the throat, nose, or eyes.
   A nutritious injection, even if it has not entered the throat, is also considered food, therefore it is prohibited.
   Swallowing one’s own saliva or phlegm is something that doesn’t break the fast, as well as things that can’t be avoided like road dust, or if you’re walking and swallow a bug or something, that doesn’t break the fast.
4. Refrain from making yourself vomit without an imperative cause.
   In case you accidentally vomit, which is something that can happen, the rule that applies is the following: if you swallow some of the vomit the fast is broken, if not, it is not broken.

SUNNA:

So far the aspects that are obligatory while fasting, we are going to move now to see what are the aspects that are sunna while fasting, which are the following:

1. Delaying suhoor.
   Okay, delay suhoor, here it is important to make a clarification; Delaying Suhoor does not mean being aware of the Adhan, unfortunately not of the mosque but of the mobile application, or seeing at the time that is 5:05 and being with the clock pending the minutes and seconds that remain, this is not the Sunnah of delaying Suhoor.
   To delay suhoor is to do it, to do suhoor, before Faqar and the Messenger of Allah, SAWS, used to stop eating a few minutes before adhan, the approximate time in which 50 verses of the Qur’an are recited.
   In that time you brush your teeth and prepare for prayer; but do not hurry to the maximum, it is not good, nor is it to follow the Sunnah of delaying Suhoor that if Fayar is at 5:01 you stop eating at 5:00; Because, we are not going to get extremist or anything, but we have to be scrupulous in these aspects, so in order not to get our fingers caught, the best thing is that, about ten minutes before the Adhan stop eating and by doing it in this way, you will be fulfilling the Sunnah of delaying Suhoor.

2. To hasten to break the fast when the Maghrib time has begun, here I say the same thing that I said in the previous point; Once it is clear and it is clear that it is Maghrib, I am of the opinion that it is okay to wait another minute or two.
   This point, or rather, or these two points of delaying suhoor and hastening to break the fast, were instituted by the Messenger of Allah, salla allaahu alaihi wa sallam, when he noticed that some of the sahaba, with their good intentions and their eagerness and desire to do good, fasted well into the night; at that moment, late at night they broke the fast, ate, and from that moment on they began their fast again; this is what the Messenger of Allah fought against, this is the meaning of this sunnah, the Messenger of Allah did not fight against one, two, or 3 minutes or so; These two Sunnahs, of delaying Suhoor and hastening in the iftar, are not to fall into the extremes, nor into the one into which some Sahabas fell to delay the breaking of the fast until late at night; nor in that of being aware of the minute and the second to stop drinking the toast of suhoor; The Messenger of Allah, salla allaahu alaihi wa sallam, taught us this to be on the middle path, on the path of balance.
3. Guarding your tongue and limbs from any kind of obscenity, from any kind of harm to another, and from meddling in matters that are none of your business; this is something very important about fasting and especially about fasting in the month of Ramadan; we must understand that Ramadan is a different month from the rest of the months of the year, we have heard it many times, in Ramadan the Shayatins are chained; For that reason, because it is a different month, because it is a month in which we have more options, or rather more facilities to do good, so we have an opportunity, we must not waste it, and we must not do anything that spoils that opportunity.
   And to guard one’s tongue and limbs from any kind of obscenity is really to take advantage of that opportunity; because it is a good deed, to protect others from the harm of your tongue, not to utter bad things, lies, accusations, slander, insults, everything is necessary at all times of the year, but because of the value of Ramadan, because of the value of fasting in Ramadan, it is especially important.
   And besides, we also know that if we do this, if we guard and protect the members of the body with sincerity we will be ascending to the degree of elite fasting.
4. Do I’tifak (retreat) in the last ten nights.
   This custom of doing i’ktikaf used to be done by the Messenger of Allah, as A’isha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “He used to do ‘iktikaf on the last ten days of Ramadan until Allah took him away, and then his wives did it after him.”

5. Do salat al-Taraweeh, preferably in mosques, although it is also advisable to do voluntary salat during the night in the houses (Qiyam).
   In the Muwatta, we find the following hadith: from ‘Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, to whom Allah may Allah give His grace and peace, that the Messenger of Allah, to whom Allah may grant His grace and peace, prayed (voluntary prayers, qiyam) in the mosque one night; and there was a group of people who prayed with him. Then he prayed the next night, and there were more people. Then on the third or fourth night they gathered, but the Messenger of Allah, to whom Allah may Allah have His grace and peace, did not come out before them. And when dawn broke he said: “I have seen what you have done, and what has prevented me from going out before you has been nothing other than the fear that it will become a precept for you.” And this happened in Ramadan. From this hadith we obtain two lessons; the first of them is that the Messenger of Allah used to do qiyam in Ramadan, and the second is the mercy that Salla Allaahu Alaihi wa Salam, always has towards us. The Messenger liked what was happening, he liked that people gathered to do qiyam, but what prevented him from continuing to practice it with his sahaba was the fear that it would become obligatory for his entire ummah, with the weight and difficulty that it would entail. The one who establishes this sunnah as we know it today, is the second Khalifa, ‘Umar ibn Al Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, Abdurrahman ibn ‘Abdil Qadir narrates when this happens as follows: “I went out with ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab in Ramadan to the mosque and we found the people divided, separated, some praying alone, and others in small groups led by one of them. And ‘Umar said: “By Allah, I see that if I were to gather them behind a single reciter it would be better.” And he gathered them behind Ubayy ibn Ka’b.
   He says: “Then I went out with him another night and the people were praying behind the reciter that he had put up, and ‘Umar said: “What a good innovation this is, and that (prayer) in regard to which they fall asleep is better than that which they do (before going to sleep),” referring to the end of the night (i.e., that the prayer that is said at the end of the night is better than the one that is done at the beginning).
   And the crowd did the night prayer at the beginning (of the night).”
   * [Y Umar lo estableció al final.]
6. Giving Zakat to Fitr at the end of Ramadan.

MUSTAHAB: Aspects that are recommended while fasting, which is mustahabb; There are many these aspects, we are going to mention only some of the most recognized and that we consider to be of greater importance:

1. Renew the intention every night.
   Previously we have seen that setting the intention on the first night is obligatory, that is, if the fast is not done it is not valid, renewing it the rest of the nights is considered advisable within our madhhab.
   And although this is not given much importance, it is very good to do so, since in this way you remind yourself every night of the blessed month in which we find ourselves.
2. Filling time with the remembrance of Allah, recitation of the Qur’an, voluntary prayers, good deeds…
   What this means is that the month of Ramadan is not a month for sleeping, it is not a month in which you say, phew, that longer days, if I sleep a lot in them, they become shorter and it passes easier for me; the one who does this has not fully understood the importance of the month of Ramadan.
   Ramadan is a special month, and it is not because of the fasting itself, it is because of the rank that Allah has given it.
   In it, the Shayatinen are chained, in it Allah gives us His Mercy, His Forgiveness and His Deliverance from Fire; but it must be earned, so Ramadan is a month of dhikra, it is a month of study, it is the month of the Qur’an, in which it was revealed, in it it is recited in salat al-taraweeh in the east and the west of the earth.
   It is a month of remembering Allah, of doing good deeds, since all the good you do in Ramadan will have a greater reward than outside of Ramadan, this is a gift from Allah, but we have to know that the opposite is also true.
   It is a month to be humble, in which to recognize who are those to whom Allah has given less than to you, and to feel inclination and generosity towards them; therefore it is a month, which we should not take as just another month, but we must be aware of the special value of this month and we must make an effort to give it the rank and merit it deserves.
3. Give sadaqa in abundance.
   We have just said that in Ramadan we are exhorted, we are called to do good deeds, because this particular action of giving sadaqa has a special value in Ramadan.
   Why is it of special value to give sadaqa in Ramadan?
   Because Ramadan, apart from all the benefits that we have mentioned that they contain, has a wisdom that is very special, it is that Allah wants us all to be equal in fasting; That is to say that by not eating or drinking during the day, we are feeling closer to people who have nothing to eat, that is to say we are suffering from hunger too, and this suffering from hunger makes your heart incline towards the needy, and therefore you are more generous in this month, than in the rest of the year.
   The Messenger of Allah was the most generous being on Earth, and he was even more so in the month of Ramadan, his generosity was comparable to a fresh and continuous breeze in the middle of a hot summer day.
4. Break the fast with dates and water or milk, that is to say with something light, do the Maghrib salat and then you can eat normally, there are people who what they do is when the time of Maghrib arrives, they eat until they are full before the prayer, that is not the right thing, the right thing to do is to break it with something light, if it is dates and milk or water much better, do the salat, and then, after the salat, eat whatever you want.

5. Look for the night of Lailatul Qadr, with special attention to the last ten nights and especially the odd ones of them; the night of Lailatul Qadr is not known exactly when it is, the most recognized is that it is night 27, but it does not have to be; the fact that it is not known exactly is so that in those last ten nights we look for it, we look for it with effort, with sincerity, because if we knew the night it is, we would pray only on that night and we would forget the rest; Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “The Messenger of Allah, to whom Allah may Allah give His grace and peace, came out before us in Ramadan and said: “It has been brought to me tonight (the night of Lailatul Qadr) in Ramadan, but two men have argued and it has gone, so look for it among the novena, the seventh and fifth”.
6. Another aspect recommended in the month of Ramadan is abundance in dua’, since in this month, Allah responds more easily to those who ask Him, to those who ask Him and they do so by complying with what He has commanded them, staying away from food, drink and sexual relations only for Allah’s sake; this is why Allah responds more easily to the duas that are made by fasting in the month of Ramadan.
   You comply with what Allah commands you, then ask Allah and He will give you.
   Now, do not be one of those who do not do what Allah commands them and expect Allah to give them away.

UNDESIRABLE: We have already seen what is obligatory, what is sunna, what is recommended, let’s now go on to see what is undesirable, and remember that what is undesirable is that which if you do you do not get any kind of punishment, but if you do not, you get reward.
But be very careful with makruh, with saying, ah, if that’s just makruh, if I do it nothing happens, since it is always said that makruh is the first step towards the forbidden.

1. Caressing or even fantasizing about intentions, even if you are sure that it will lead to more and that it will cause you to emit the pre-before ejaculation, that is undesirable, makruh.
   If one fears that one will not be able to control oneself in those moments of excitement, then it is not only undesirable, but it is forbidden.
2. It is also undesirable to taste food, put anything that tastes in your mouth, and items such as toothpaste should also be avoided, because of the possibility that you will swallow something, in which case the fast would be invalidated.
3. The third undesirable aspect is to talk unnecessarily too much; We hear this many times, and it is a very important aspect of fasting.

4. Kissing and even more undesirable in the case of those who are afraid of not holding back.
   It is understood that it refers to the kiss that is not on the mouth, since kissing on the mouth while fasting is something that should always be avoided, and kissing on the skin, whether it is the man to the woman or vice versa, is undesirable as it can lead to arousing arousal that you are not able to control yourself and end up breaking the fast.
5. The same applies to caresses, that is, caressing your wife, or vice versa, is always understood as a caress that goes beyond a simple touching of her arm for example, it is undesirable, if you fear that you will not be able to contain yourself with those caresses, then it is considered that it is prohibited.
6. To look at women with desire (in the case of women, to look at men with desire), it is said that the gaze is the mail of fornication, and that it is through the eyes that the Shaytaan tries to enter, so this time of gaze must be avoided at any time of the year. but in Ramadan in particular much more.
7. To employ any member of the body in doing or saying things that are superfluous and devoid of any kind of value.
8. Use kohol or eye drops for the eyes as it is very likely that it will end up entering the eyes and that it will end up reaching the throat.
9. Overdoing it when inhaling water through the nose into the wudu, as it can end up reaching the throat.
10. Sleeping a lot during the day, sleeping excessively while fasting.

FORBIDDEN: These are the undesirable aspects, let’s now see what are the forbidden aspects during fasting, or in other words, what if you do while fasting breaks your fast:

1. Fasting without intention, or while you are fasting break your intention, or while fasting deny the obligatory nature of fasting, that is, you are fasting and you say: bah, step of continuing to fast, and even if you do not break it, even if you do not eat anything, just putting that intention is enough.

2. Engaging in sexual intercourse, or deliberate ejaculation, either by provoking it yourself or with the intervention of other people or creatures.
3. Something entering the body cavity (from the throat to the stomach) through the mouth, nostrils, or eyes or ears; that is why we must avoid kohol, eye drops and other similar aspects; The injections, unless they are nutritious, do not break the fast according to most of the ‘ulamas of Madhhab al Maliki.
4. Intentionally causing vomiting or swallowing again what has been vomited or regurgitated once it has reached a part of the mouth from which it should be thrown; that is, if you intentionally make yourself vomit, you break the fast, swallow or do not swallow anything; If it’s unintentional, you only break it if you swallow something once it’s out of your throat.
5. Apostasy, i.e., going out of the Deen, invalidates the fast.
6. That menstruation occurs, even if it is at the end of the day, at the moment when the woman realizes that menstruation has come that day of fasting is not valid for her and she has to make it up.
7. There may be a loss of consciousness or a moment of mental derangement at dawn or throughout the day.
   And here what most of the ulamas agree on is that if fayar happens and you are unconscious (not because you are asleep) the fast is not valid and if it occurs throughout the day, that loss of consciousness has to last at least half of the day, if so, then that day you have to make it up, If it lasts less than half the day, the fast is still valid.

BREAKING FASTING: These seven aspects break the fast, we are talking about invalidating the fast, and whenever we talk about breaking the fast, you have to make a difference, you have to be clear about one thing and that is that there are really three ways by which the fast is broken:

1. Intentionally, it is the fast that you either obligatory or commendable break intentionally, with full awareness of it, totally knowingly, committing some of the acts that invalidate it that we have already talked about.
2. Second way of breaking the fast: Unintentionally, unintentionally, carelessly, it is the fast that you unintentionally, by mistake, break; It’s when you’re fasting and you see a glass of water, and you drink it, and the moment you drink it, you say, “Go on, but I was fasting.”
3. The third category is breaking the fast, for some valid excuse, such as being traveling, extreme physical exhaustion that makes you fear for your health, that the woman gets her menstruation, that an illness occurs, etc… In these cases it is permissible to break the fast, as you do so for a “valid excuse”.

These are the three ways by which the fast can be broken, and it is always with one of the seven aspects that we have just seen that break the fast; So there is a basic rule, and that is, that if you break an obligatory fast, for whatever reason, for any of these three reasons, that day of fasting you have to make it up.
This is the basic and general rule, any day of obligatory fasting, which is broken, must be made up.
Now, if you break an obligatory fast, whether it is a day of Ramadan, or any other type of obligatory fast, knowingly, consciously, without any valid excuse, the first thing that you have to make clear and say is that it is forbidden, it is haraam to do that, you cannot take and break the fast because you feel like it, And we have said it before, what does it mean when we say that something is haram?
Haram is that which, if done, carries a punishment, and if it is not done, it is rewarded.
So breaking an obligatory fast, intentionally and without excuse, is haram, requires tawba, and requires expiation, a kaffara, which we will talk about later.
Let’s give an example to understand this better, you are on the 21st day of Ramadan, you say, puff, how hot, how thirsty I am, I stop fasting, I don’t want to continue fasting, you go to the fridge, open it, take the bottle of cold water, and give it a good drink; Very well, you have done it, I suppose you have been comfortable, but now you have to know that what you have done is haram, that it requires tawba, that you are going to have to make an atonement, and not only that, but the rest of the day, you have to continue fasting and then, you have to make up that day.
If this happens unintentionally, on the 21st day of Ramadan, you get up from your nap, it’s 5 in the afternoon, you go to the kitchen, still half asleep, you open the fridge, take the bottle of water and give them a drink, and you say, come on, what have I done, if I’m fasting.
In that case, you have not done something haraam, because there was no intention to do it, you do not have to do tawba, you do not have to pay any expiation, all you have to do is to continue fasting for the rest of the day, and make up that day when your fast has not been valid.
Observe the difference in the consequences between one thing and another, the act is the same, drinking water, but everything depends on the intention, that is why the intention is always the first thing, that is why in all acts of worship, the first condition is the intention.
VALID EXCUSES FOR NOT FASTING:

And now to finish this first part, let’s see what are the valid excuses for not fasting or breaking the fast according to the madhhab of Imam Malik, there are seven cases:

1. The disease; Allah says: “But whoever is sick or travelling, may do so in equal numbers on other days” (Baqara, 183).
   If a person is sick with an illness that prevents him from fasting, then he may not fast; If the illness does not prevent you from fasting but fasting will cause you to get worse, then you can not fast and not only that, but in that case it is obligatory that you do not fast.
   If you can fast with difficulty (which is an effort but does not make the disease worse), then you are licensed to break the fast although it is best that you at least try to fast.
   If he is sick during Ramadan, but that disease has a cure, then he should not fast and do it when he recovers; If it is a disease that has no cure, or that requires eating every few hours and therefore prevents fasting, then do not fast and pay alimony for each day not fasted. Ç
2. The journey; In order for the fast to be broken because you are traveling, there are some conditions, including that it is a halal trip, that is, that it is not a trip to commit an act of transgression, that you travel at least a distance that allows you to shorten the prayers, which are 84 km, that you intend not to be residing in the place you are going to for more than four days (just like in prayer), another condition to be able to break the fast on the trip is to set the intention that you are going to travel and leave before Fayar, if you leave after Fayar it cannot be broken.
   Regarding the journey it is important to remember that what Allah gives is a license not to fast because of the difficulty that the journey itself may have and it is always better to fast than not to do so.
   However, if one goes on a journey after Fajr, and it is very difficult for him, then he should know that if he breaks the fast, he is not breaking it because of the journey, but because of the extreme difficulty, which we will talk about later.
3. The pregnant woman: Ibn Abi Zaid al-Qairawan says in the Risala: “If the pregnant woman fears that fasting will affect the child she is carrying in her womb, let her not fast.”
   If a pregnant woman fears that fasting may affect her health or that of the fetus, or the baby she is carrying, then she should not fast.
   You don’t have to start fasting and when you feel bad break it, that is, you don’t have to start fasting every day, you just don’t fast, and later you will make it up.
4. The woman who is breastfeeding: The woman who is breastfeeding is allowed not to fast if she fears for herself or her baby, and if she cannot find a wet nurse to feed it or the child does not accept more milk than her own.
   The difference with respect to the pregnant woman is that in this case if there is a call to the woman who is breastfeeding to try to fast, try to test how the fast feels to her, since the fact of breastfeeding is not a valid excuse for not fasting, but what allows not to fast is that fear of health; then let the woman try, if she can’t then she shouldn’t fast, if she can, then she should do it.
5. Old age: Sharia’ gives the elderly, whether male or female, to those who fasting has already become a burden for them permission not to fast, having to feed a poor person for each day not fasted, since obviously, they will not make it back. The Messenger, whom Allah may have blessed upon him, said: “Whoever reaches old age and is unable to fast in the month of Ramadan must give a mud of wheat for each day.” And Imam Malik says in the Muwatta, that Anas ibn Malik reached an age when he could not fast and gave food compensation. And Malik says: “But I don’t see that this was an obligation for him, and the most dear thing to me, is that he gives that compensation if he is strong (if he has the means to do it). In other words, in mahdhab maliki it is not obligatory, but it is recommended.
6. Hunger or extreme thirst, one who during a day of Ramadan feels a hunger or extreme thirst and feels that this will harm his health or the activity he is obliged to perform, then Sharia allows him to break the fast in order to cover that imperative need.
   If the case is very extreme, not only is he allowed to break the fast, but he is obliged to break it and for each day that he has broken or that he has not fasted he will not have to pay any type of compensation, what he will have to do is make it up when he can.
7. The imposition, the obligation.
   Someone forces you to break the fast by force, if this happens to someone, then let them break it and then they will have to make up the day or days without the need for them to give any compensation.
   The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Allah has removed the responsibility in this ummah from three, error, forgetfulness, and that which you are forced to do.”

These are the seven cases in which madhhab al-Maliki allows the fast to be broken.
In all these cases where we have talked about food compensation, it is not feeding sixty poor people, as if you had intentionally broken a day of Ramadan fasting, the compensation in these cases is feeding one poor person for each day not fasted; feed it with the most common food of the place where you are, and it is preferred that it be already cooked food because it is possible that the one you are giving it to does not have the means to cook it.
This same alimony has to be paid by those who have not recovered the days they owed from the previous Ramadan until the next Ramadan arrives; that is, this year, for one reason or another, I do not fast for 4 days, if I do not make them up before the following Ramadan I have to feed a needy person for each of those days.
And of course, I have to keep having to make up those fasting days.

Well, here we end the first part of this seminar, what we could call the technical part and in which we have talked about fasting in general, what fasting is and how it is done, whatever the time it is.
Now what we are going to talk about is the month of Ramadan, what it means, what it implies, the treasures it contains, what has come to us about it, the reward and benefits of fulfilling fasting in this month, so we can say that what we are going to do now is: Discover the secrets of Ramadan.
And there are really many secrets, wisdoms and gifts that the month of Ramadan contains, so it would be unfair of us to try to restrict fasting to that abstaining from eating and drinking as it is usually known.
And as a taste of the secrets that the month of Ramadan holds, we are going to see what were the words with which the Prophet, salla allahu alaihi wa sallam, addressed some of his companions on the night before the entrance of Ramadan, and they are words that come to us through the noble Sahaba Salam Al Farisi, in which the Messenger of Allah says: “O people! A great and blessed month has come to you, a month in which there is one night that is better than a thousand months; a month in which Allah has made fasting obligatory and in which He has arranged as a voluntary action to spend the night in prayer. The one who approaches Allah during this month with a voluntary good deed is like the one who does an obligatory deed outside this month, and his action is equivalent to doing seventy obligatory deeds at any other time. It is the month of unalterable patience and its reward is the Garden. It is the month in which one should give generously and the month in which the believer’s provision is increased. If anyone gives to the fasting something to break it, he will obtain forgiveness for his evil deeds and deliver him from the Fire; and he will also have the same reward as the one who gives food, without this diminishing his rewards in any way.”
And it is that Ramadan is really a very special month, and really what makes it special is not the fast itself, since fasting can be done at another time of the year, what makes Ramadan special is the rank that Allah has given it, it is because in it is the best of the nights of the year and because every year, when it comes, Allah makes it special, and if not, listen to these words of the Messenger of Allah, salla allaahu alayhi wa sallam: “Verily the Garden is perfumed and adorned every year for the entrance of the month of Ramayan, and when the first night of Ramadan comes, a wind blows from under the Throne which they call ‘al-Muzira’ and shakes the leaves of the trees of the Garden and the knockers of the flaps, producing such a tinkling that no one has ever heard anything more beautiful. And those with large and beautiful eyes look out until they stand on the battlements of the Garden and exclaim: “Is there anyone who asks Allah for our hand so that Allah will marry him to us?”
And then they say, “O Riḍuán, what is tonight?”
And he answers them with the talbiya (i.e., with the expression: “At your disposal”) and says: “O good and beautiful ones, this is the first night of the month of Ramadan.”
And Allah says: “O Riḍuán! He opens the gates of the Gardens for those who fast from the ummah of Muhammad,” and says: “O Malik! close the gates of Jayḥim for those who fast from the ummah of Muhammad,” and says: “O Jibrel! Come down to Earth and chain the rebellious demons, put the rings on them and then throw them into the depths of the seas so that they do not spoil, to the umma of My beloved Muhammad, their fast.”

So with your permission and I hope with your interest, what we are going to try to do, is to see what is behind abstaining from eating, drinking and having sex from subh to maghrib.
Because what we have just said is fasting, this is the basic fast, the obligatory fast according to the Sharia’ of Islam for everyone who meets the conditions of mukallaf, that is, for everyone who is sane, has reached puberty and has received the Message of Islam, as we have said previously.
This is what we will begin to do in a few days, from before dawn, from the time of the Fajar prayer, to the time of Maghrib, until the sun sets on the horizon, we will abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, sexual relations, abstaining from the appetites of the stomach and private parts; and by doing so we will be fulfilling what Allah asks of us, we will be fulfilling one of the pillars of Islam, we are obeying Allah.
There is one thing about fasting that is very beautiful and that I particularly like very much, and that is that all the ‘ibadat, all the acts of worship, are precisely that, they are acts, they are actions, it is doing something, on the other hand, fasting is not, it is not doing something, it is not doing something, it is not faithful, it is tark, It is to stop doing, to abstain from and that is why fasting has such a high reward, because what is easier, to do an act, to make a prayer, to perform a meritorious act, or to stop doing something, to restrain yourself from something, to be able to stop before something not because you want, but what you need, such as food and drink and do it only for Allah’s sake.
This is fasting, it is tark, it is to leave, it is to abstain from eating, from drinking, from the appetites of the stomach and from the private parts, from fajar to maghrib, and as we have said before, the one who does this, is fulfilling what is obligatory.
But we must know that this is the lowest degree of fasting, it is obligatory, it is the basic yes, it is what must be fulfilled, but there is more and it is something that exists in practically all acts of worship and they are the three possible levels, since we have the fast of the commons, the fast of the elite and the fasting of the elite among the elite.
The fast of the commons, umum al muslim, is what we have just described and it is, as we have mentioned, the obligatory fast.
When we speak in terms of Fiqh for example, what we have talked about before, what is obligatory, what is forbidden, what invalidates it, etc., it is always this type of fasting that we are referring to.

The second degree is the fasting of the elite, the fast of jusus al muslim, the fast of that group that stands out above the ordinary, above the mass, because they are demanding of themselves and seek to make fasting not only to comply with obedience to Allah, but also to make fasting a means to get closer to Him.
And in fact fasting is one of the best possible means of getting closer to Allah, because of the sincerity that fasting entails, and that is why Allah says in a hadith qudsi: “Fasting is Mine and I repay it.”
These, those who reach the degree of elite fasting, not only deny themselves food and drink, but also deny to their ears, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, anything that is disobedience to Allah, anything that will harm and harm their fasting. they deny themselves any act that will involve a distance from Allah, that will be a cause of separation from Allah, subahanhu wa ta’ala.
This fast, which is the fast of the salihin, of the righteous, and is what is usually described as the fast of the members of the body, but it is not really an external fast only but also has an internal component, and this type of fasting, which should be the fast that all of us should aspire to and that we should strive to achieve, It is a fast that is based on five conditions.
1) The first is one of the great enemies of the human being, an enemy that is growing more and more, especially in these lands and in these times, and it is the gaze, lowering the gaze, avoiding looking at something that makes you lose concentration and the awareness of Allah, being able to lower your gaze in the face of that which is not only forbidden, but in the face of what is undesirable.
Since, as they say, the gaze is the first step of zina.
And we are mainly referring to the lascivious gaze, the gaze with desire, since everything you look at that Allah has forbidden you is blinding you, and preventing you from seeing things that are good for you, there are even ulamas that claim that looking at the forbidden with desire and longing in dunia will blind you from seeing some of the delights of the Garden.
The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The gaze is one of the poisoned arrows of the Shaytaan; whoever stops looking like this (he is referring to the lascivious gaze of what Allah has forbidden) will receive from Allah an inner opening whose sweetness he will find within his heart.”
Restraint of the gaze is really one of the hallmarks of believers, and by this we are not referring to having to go down the street looking at the ground or anything like that, no, restraint of the gaze or lowering the gaze is, take your eyes to that which you know is forbidden and rejoice in it, with desire, with longing and lasciviousness, allowing fantasy to enter your heart and then to turn Allah away from it, this is the real evil of the gaze.

Hence the Messenger of Allah, speaking of this kind of fasting, the fasting of the elite, the fasting of those who abstain not only from the desires of the belly and private parts, but also from the desires of the rest of the members of the body, said: “Five things break the fast (this kind of fasting, the degree, the value, the reward of this kind of fasting): lying, slander, slander, false oath, and lascivious looking.” 2) The second condition, the second limb from which one must abstain in order to attain the degree of elite fasting, is the worst of all, this is indeed the great enemy, it is the cause of as the Messenger of Allah said, people being thrown face down into the Fire, it is the tongue, the evil of the tongue, the evil that our tongues harvest. Talking for the sake of talking, especially in that tone of mockery and chatter so common among us, banal conversations, with no other meaning than to spend some time, is something that we must move away from even a little during Ramadan, that there is a change in all our behavior in Ramadan, that is what is sought and part of it is to change and elevate our conversations. This is with respect to what we can call undesirable, or a little reprehensible, and if this is the case with this type of conversation, how do you think it will be with respect to lies, slander, weeds, those conversations in which the only thing that is done is to criticize what so-and-so does or what so-and-so does, or what does this group or that group do? What do you think of the insults, the lies? Ramadan is contention in the face of all that, Ramadan is to elevate ourselves in all aspects, and part of it is our conversations, it is what our tongue pronounces, recite the Qur’an, may your tongue always be wet from the Remembrance of Allah and may it be even more so during Ramadan, that is the fast of the tongue that is part of the fast of the elite. And this is a point that we are very much in need of, we like to criticize, too much, to line up someone and not stop, and then put their cousin or brother-in-law in the same bag and make the snowball bigger and bigger. We are going to try to break this Ramadan, we are going to make an effort to do it, all of us and if we succeed we will have come a long way on the path, and if we achieve it and then we are able to maintain it after Ramadan you cannot imagine what we will change and what we will grow, and you cannot imagine what that change will be. so necessary among us, it will mean the accumulation of shares for the next life. To keep, to protect the tongue except for good, to say something that will be of benefit to you or to others, or to keep silent to benefit yourself or others, or rather, to save yourself and others, because to be safe is in silence; silence is the armor that protects you against the evil of the tongue; and may Allah be pleased with the one who said: “Know that man does not overcome the Shayman except through silence; so the Muslim should guard his tongue until he is safe from the Shayman and Allah covers his nakedness (do not discover his hidden deeds or defects).”

And look how beautiful what four great kings, four great emperors with vast empires at their service, but aware of what the word was, say so Abu Bakr ibn ‘Iyash said: “There were four kings who said, each of them, words that were as if they had been shot from the same bow: Khosrau said, “I do not regret what I have not said, but I regret what I have said.” And the king of China said, “As long as I do not say a word, I possess it, but if I say it, it will have possessed me.” And Caesar, the king of the Romans, said, “I can answer better what I have not said than what I have said.” And the king of India said: “It is surprising who says a word that, if it transcends, harms him, and if it does not transcend it does not benefit him.” And what is the sign of the believer, what is one of the hallmarks of sincere believers? That they speak little and do a lot, that they speak little means that in everything they say there is a benefit and in everything they are silent there is protection. And what is the sign of the hypocrite? What is one of the hallmarks of those who are not sincere in their relationship with Allah? Who talk a lot and do little. And how wonderful is what one of the great men of knowledge said, which is also totally related to the kind of fasting we are talking about, with the fasting of the elite, he said, may Allah be pleased with him: “The body of the son of Adam has three parts: one of them is his heart, the second is his tongue, and the third is the members. And Allah has honoured each party with an honour: He has honoured the heart by knowing it and acknowledging His Oneness; to the tongue, he has honored it with the testimony that ‘there is no god but Allah’ and the recitation of His Book; and the members, he has honored with ṣalat, fasting, and other acts of obedience. And to each of the parties, he has assigned a guardian and a protector. Thus, the protection of the heart has been entrusted to Himself, so that no one knows what is inside the servant except Allah. The protection of the tongue has been entrusted to the ‘guardians’ (angels’, says Allah, may He be exalted: “He does not say a word except a watchman present by him” (Surah Qaf, 18). And it has imposed the mandate and the prohibition on the members. Therefore he wants fidelity from each party. Fidelity of the heart, then, is to be affirmed in belief and not to envy, nor to betray, nor to conspire. The fidelity of the tongue is: not to defame, or lie, or talk about what does not concern; and the faithfulness of the members is: not to disobey Allah, may He be exalted, or to harm any of the Muslims. And he who fails, with respect to the heart, will be a hypocrite; whoever fails to comply, with respect to the language, will be an unbeliever; and whoever fails to comply, with respect to the members, will be disobedient.”

(3) The third of the conditions of elite fasting is intimately related to the one we have just mentioned of evil of the tongue or of the restraint of the tongue, and that is the restraint of the ear.
And it is tremendously important to understand this point well and to strive to apply it during our Ramadan fast, and of course, if we are able to do so to keep it after Ramadan.

And it is that the evil received by the one who listens to the types of conversation that we have mentioned in the previous point is comparable to the evil received by the one who pronounces them with his tongue, that is why it is so important that among us we have the necessary courage to – and this we must do both in Ramadan and outside of Ramadan – to put an end to this type of conversation, Well having the ability to change the subject and if that is not possible, then have the courage and self-assurance to get up and get out of that place.
Lending your ear, not protecting it from conversations in which a person is spoken badly, in which someone is criticized, in which lies are told, in which slander and weeds spread, has a very great evil, and it is no longer only the evil that the one who does it is equated with the one who says them, which in itself is a great evil, if not a greater evil than that, is that the person who hears it is allowing the whisper of the Shaytaan to enter his heart regarding the person of whom he is speaking.
And this is especially important in the case of marriages.
And it is very common among us, too common I would dare to say, that if someone has a problem with his wife, he goes to another person to speak badly of his wife and we should not allow this; Asking for advice to get out of that difficult situation is one thing, and it is something praiseworthy and praiseworthy if the intention is sincere, but talking for the sake of talking, complaining just to be more comfortable, we should not consent to it, neither the one who says it, nor the one who lends his ears to it.
Therefore we must take advantage of the month of Ramadan, with the intention of reaching the fast of the elite, to break with all these types of vices that do so much damage to human relationships.
4) The fourth condition, the fourth aspect that we must contemplate in order to improve our fasting and to make us reach the degree of elite fasting, is control, bending the hands and feet, and in addition the rest of the members of the body, avoiding committing any kind of injustice, any kind of harm, any kind of evil.
It is useless to fast if you then steal or appropriate money that does not belong to you, you do not achieve anything by fasting, with the difficulty that fasting entails, if you are then unjust to others.
It is like someone who sells a car to buy gasoline, or like someone who destroys a country to build a palace.
That is not the fasting of the elite, because that is really part of tyranny and injustice, it is wanting to pretend that you are very good, that look, that I am fasting, but then your actions go against it; It is something that we should be very cautious about, that the fact that you increase our worship in this month, with fasting and taraweeh primarily, is not a license to then in other aspects overstep the limits.

Why did the Messenger of Allah say that there are people who only get hunger and thirst from fasting?
Because they are people who do fast externally, but they forget everything we are talking about, they forget their inner relationship, they forget the true meaning and importance of fasting; he sees Ramadan and fasting as a punishment, he doesn’t see it as an opportunity, he sees it as an imposition, he doesn’t see it as a mercy.
And this is another issue that we must reflect on because it is a reality that we often forget and that is the fact of recognizing that Allah, who has been the one who has created us and has created this universe and has made it available to us, is the one who best knows what it is that we need; and therefore everything that he has forbidden us is because there is an evil for us in it, and everything that he has made obligatory for us is because there is a good for us in it.
And this is so, there is no way around it.
What happens are two things, there are two factors that influence this reality.
The first of these is how restricted our intellects are and how little effort we make to make them cease to be so, that is, how little we dedicate ourselves to informing ourselves, studying and understanding these matters and on the other hand, and this is perhaps the most important is the fact, as Allah says in His Book: “You may dislike something that is good for you and you may love something that is evil. Allah knows and you do not know.”
I repeat it again, there is nothing that Allah has made obligatory on us, either in our relationship with Him or in our relationship with creatures, without this being good for us; and conversely, there is nothing that Allah has forbidden us, either in our relationship with Him or in our relationship with creatures, without that entailing evil for us.
“Allah will call Jibril and send him to the Garden and say: “Look at it, and what I have prepared for His people in it.”
And He will come back and say, “By Thy sublimity, that no one shall hear of Him except that He shall enter into Him.”
Then he will be surrounded with the things he does not want.
And he will say, “Go back to him and look at him,” and he will come back and say, “By your sublimity, I have feared that no one should enter into it.”
Then He will send Him to the Fire and say to Him, “Look at Him, and what I have prepared for His own in it,” and He will come back and say, “By Thy sublimity! No one who hears of him will enter into it.”
Then he will be surrounded by appetites.
And he will say, “Go back to him and look at him!”
And He will come back and say: ‘By Your sublimity and majesty, I have feared that there will be no one left without entering into it.'”
But of course our nafs are involved and it is very difficult for him to accept this, because he does not see what is harmful or beneficial, he only sees the appetites and passions.
And what are we talking about?
Of fasting, and what is one of the main benefits of fasting, controlling our nafs.
5) The fifth condition for attaining the degree of elite fasting is to have the ability to avoid excesses during fasting nights.
If during the day we have fasted, and we have been able to control and subdue our nafs, that when you break the fast it does not defeat you completely and imposes itself on you, letting it surrender to appetites without any kind of restraint or containment.

Why is it on the nights of the month of Ramadan that the taraweeh salat is done?
This is precisely why we are talking about, to have another support, another handhold to be able to defeat nafs during Ramadan.
In the end, that’s what Ramadan is about, it’s defeating and controlling your nafs by denying it its most basic instinct, which is food.
That instinct most innate in the human being, that first instinct of the newborn baby to go for the mother’s breast to satisfy his craving for food; You fight against it from before dawn until sunset, you have been able to control yourself, to judge about your Nafs, do not lose it once you have broken the fast by giving yourself completely to all kinds of excesses, maintain a certain balance, keep controlling and defeating your Nafs and then you will be reaching the degree of elite fasting.
This is the degree of fasting to which we should aspire, and it is not impossible that no one should think that it cannot be attained, for it can really be attained; it requires great effort and above all it requires great sincerity, with Allah and with yourself, but know that the one who reaches this degree enters a different state, since he has understood much of the reality and meaning of fasting.
But above this degree, there is a higher degree, the elite of the elite among the Muslims.
They are those whose hearts are dedicated solely and exclusively to Allah, those who in everything they see around them see the presence and power of Allah, they are those who abstain from eating and drinking during the day, who abstain from all acts of evil or disobedience, who are able to control and judge nafs, they are those who fast with their hearts, those whose mere thought of food is a diminution in their fasting, those who surrender completely to Allah, those who completely abandon their nafs to entrust themselves to Allah, those whose breath is Allah, those whose heartbeats are a remembrance of Allah, those whose only goal, whose only desire is Allah.
This is the highest degree, it is the degree of those who love with the love of Allah and hate with the hatred of Allah, it is the degree of the awliya and the salihin, the degree of those who have attained wilaya, the degree of those who fast with the heart.
There are no words to describe this type of fasting, because it is not really a degree that can be reached, it is not a station that no matter how much you do you will end up reaching, as the previous season is, it is a degree that when you are on the path to achieving it, when you are really striving for it, then Allah, in His immense Mercy, grants it to you.
And it is narrated from ‘Umar, may Allaah be pleased with him, that he used to say at the beginning of the month of Ramaḍan: “Welcome be our purifier, for Ramaḍan is all good: fasting by day and praying by night, and giving in him is like giving in the way of Allah.”

I would like to follow these words with a beautiful hadith in which the Messenger of Allah, salla allaahu alaihi wa sallam, tells us about some of the wisdom that the month of Ramadan contains, it is a hadith in which we can see the different aspects that are present in fasting and in the month of Ramadan, In it, Salla Allahu Alaihi wa Sallam, says: “O people!
Verily, the Month of Allah has come upon you with blessings, mercy and forgiveness.
This is a month that in the sight of Allah is the best of months, its days the best days, and its hours the best of hours.
It is a month in which you were summoned at the invitation of Allah and in it you have become part of the people who have been the object of Allah’s Bounty.
Your breath in him is glorification; your dream in it is adoration; Your actions in Him are accepted and your supplications in Him answered.
Therefore, ask your Lord in it, with right intentions and with pure hearts, to grant you in it the success of fasting and reciting His Book (the Qur’an).
Woe is he who is deprived of Allah’s forgiveness in this Majestic Month!
Remember, through your hunger and thirst in this Month, the thirst and hunger of the Day of Resurrection.
Give sadaqa generously to your poor and destitute; respect your elders and have mercy on your children; strengthen ties with your relatives; hold fast your tongues (from that which should not be said, from any kind of wickedness and indecency), close your eyes to that which is not lawful for you to look at and turn away your ears from that which is not lawful for you to hear, and be kind to the orphans of the people so that they may be kind to your orphans (once you have departed).
Turn to Him in repentance of your faults and mistakes, and lift up your hands to Him in supplication at the times of your recollections, for they are the best hours when Allah, the Majestic and Awesome, turns His gaze mercifully to His servants, answers them whenever they implore Him quietly and sincerely, He appears before them every time they invoke him, and answers them affirmatively every time they ask him.
O people!
Verily, your souls depend on your actions, so keep them clean by asking for Allah’s forgiveness.
Your shoulders are burdened with your mistakes, mistakes that you have made throughout the year, so lighten their load by prolonging your prostrations.
And know that Allah, Glorified be His mention, has sworn by His Highness that He will not punish those who sincerely pray and those who prostrate themselves in this Month, and that He will not frighten them with Fire on the Day when people appear before the Lord of the Universe.

O people!
Whoever among you gives a fasting believer to break his fast in this month, he will thereby have before Allah the reward of freeing a slave and forgiveness of the injustices he has committed.”

Hearing all this, some of the Companions said: “O Messenger of Allah! Not all of us can do that.”
The Prophet (pbuh) replied: “Take the Fire away from you even if it is by giving the fasting person half a date, or a sip of water, for verily Allah will bestow this reward on the one who does so, if he is unable to offer more. O people! Anyone who improves his character in this Month will have the facility to walk on the Sirat (the Bridge to Paradise) on the Day when the feet stumble. Whoever in this Month lightens the tasks of his male or female slave, Allah will lighten his calculation on the Day of Resurrection; and whoever restrains his evil, Allah the Most High will restrain from him His Wrath on the Day of His Encounter. Whoever honours an orphan in this Month, Allah will honour him on the Day of His meeting. Whoever in this Month strengthens ties with relatives, Allah will strengthen His bonds with him, with His all-encompassing mercy, on the Day of His meeting; and whoever in this Month severs his kinship ties, Allah will cut His Mercy from him on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever performs a meritorious salat in this month, Allah will write for him the exemption from the Fire, and whoever performs a mandatory salat in this month, Allah will bestow upon him the reward of 70 obligatory prayers performed in any other month. Whoever in this month addresses many blessings (salawat) to me, (and remember that the one who speaks is the Messenger of Allah, i.e., whoever does much salat for the Prophet in this month) Allah will cause the balance of his (good) deeds to weigh on the Day when the scales of deeds will be light. And whoever recites a single verse of the Qur’an in this month will have the reward of someone who has read the entire Qur’an in other months. O people! Verily, during this month the gates of the Garden are open, ask your Lord not to close them before you. And in this Month the gates of Hell are closed, so ask your Lord not to open them for you; and the Shayatain in this Month are in chains, so pray to Allah that He does not cause them to rule over you…”
This hadith is the essence of Ramadan and from it very important lessons are drawn about what Ramadan means.
The first thing that the Messenger of Allah does is to manifest the preeminence that the month of Ramadan has over the rest of the months and as we have already said on other occasions, it is not the fasting itself that gives this position to the month of Ramadan, but it has this rank because of the power that Allah has placed in it.

Ramadan is a month in which its days are the best days and its nights are the best nights, so everything we do in Ramadan will have a higher reward; and this is yet another example of the great mercy that Allah has towards His creatures; and it is that despite the fact that Ramadan contains its difficulties, which we cannot deny that it contains, everything we do in it, its reward will be multiplied. In the end you know what is the most important thing we get from this hadith, apart from seeing all the reward, the actions we must perform, what we must stay away from, etc… But for me, the most important lesson to be gained from this hadith is the encouragement to be aware of what Ramadan is, the encouragement to strive to improve our Ramadan fast. And in the end our whole affair, both Islam and Imam and Ihsan, is based on a cornerstone, around that cornerstone everything revolves, and it is the effort, the constant effort that Allah asks of us. An effort that, as we have said so many times, is not because Allah needs it, no, it is because we need it and that effort, those who benefit the most are those who make an effort. Who has the most reward? The one who does the salat at home alone, or the one who does it in Jama’ah in the Mosque? And what has more effort? Who has more reward, the one who sleeps through the night, or the one who gets up to do some rakats during the night? And what has more effort? Who has more reward than he who makes his fast only to abstain from the appetites of the stomach and private parts; or the one who fasts also with the rest of the members of the body as we described last week? And which of the two types involves more effort? So our whole business as Muslims is based on effort, and what is very important, tremendously important, is that we strive because we know that the reward for that effort will be before us tomorrow, and it will really be that extra effort that we have made in this life that will lead us to ascend in the degrees of the Garden. Consequently, laziness, laziness, neglect or inactivity, which we see so present in our days, are symptoms of a lack of understanding, knowledge and comprehension of what Islam is. Life is the action of each one of us, and Islam is life. And this is essentially manifested in the actions we undertake, in the goals we set for ourselves, in the strength of our intention and in the perseverance with which we overcome difficulties and overcome the obstacles that may be in our way. All Islam is action, knowledge, so praiseworthy and praiseworthy, is of no use if it is not accompanied by action, why do we give these classes, to expand our knowledge yes, but so that this knowledge leads us to action, if not, that knowledge, rather than favoring us, will end up harming us, because we will know what we should do, but we will not apply it, and it is not the same before Allah who knows something but does not do it, as he who does not know it without knowing it.

Knowledge is a stimulus, listening to and reading hadiths like the one we have just read is not to say, oh look how nice, no, it is to serve as a stimulus to increase our effort and to warn you and keep us away from laziness and laziness; and furthermore, in this particular hadith, as in many others, we are encouraged and encouraged by the Messenger of Allah to do so by showing us the goodness and reward that it contains; that is, it does so with promises – promises whenever they are fulfilled – and does not do so with threats; He tells us: if you comply, if you make an effort, this is for you and if you don’t, this is what you are missing. The Messenger of Allah, to whom Allah may give His grace and peace, said: “Five things have been granted to my ummah that have never before been given to any ummah: That the evil breath of the mouth of the fasting person may be better for Allah than the perfume of musk. That the angels may ask forgiveness for them until they break the fast. During it, the rebellious demons are to be chained and not let loose as they are outside of it. That every day of him Allah adorns His Garden and says to him: “It is not long before my righteous servants will be delivered from trouble and evil and come to you.” And on the last night they are forgiven.” They said: “Messenger of Allah, do you mean the night of the Decree?” He said: “No, it is simply that the one who works is paid his remuneration when he finishes his work.” And really the month of Ramadan is what it teaches us, it teaches us to strive, it teaches us to restrain ourselves. Throughout this month we abstain from food and drink from fayar to maghrib, and it is not a sacrifice, really doing so is a success, it is success. By depriving ourselves of food or sexual intercourse during Ramadan, we are not giving up anything bad. It is essential to understand this. We do not punish ourselves with fasting, it is fasting, it is an atonement for having sinned, we do not do it because we have been bad, no, this is not the meaning of fasting. Ramadan is a unique opportunity, it is pure light, and we Muslims live it as a real party, despite the difficulty and the effort that it entails, since every day that passes, every day that ends, we rejoice, it is one more goal on that path of effort, we are happy for having fulfilled our test and we are happy because we are once again enjoying what we had deprived ourselves of for so many hours. But above these daily joys there is an even greater joy, a joy so great that it cannot be calculated or restricted, and it is the joy of the slave who has exerted himself in his fasting, when he meets his Lord, on that day the joy that the servant will get from seeing the reward that Allah has prepared for him, It will be so great that not even the happiest day of your life in Dunia can even compare with that day and that joy; and it is nothing but the reward for the effort, for every effort has a reward, and the effort by and for Allah, the reward who gives it is Allah; and the reward of Allah is in no way comparable to the reward of men.

According to the Prophet (pbuh), Allah has said: “The fast belongs to me…”
Fasting and fasting are from Allah, for they are placed in His hands completely.
Why does a Muslim fast?
The Muslim fasts in obedience to a command of his true and only Lord.
Fasting is pure Islam, it is pure submission to Allah.
What keeps the Muslim on constant alert throughout a month, avoiding carelessness that nullifies his fasting state?
The constant desire to please Allah.
For effort of any kind, or rather in whatever action, and especially for fasting, a quality is necessary, a quality which the Messenger of Allah describes as half of the Deen, the other half being thankfulness; that quality is As-Sabr, patience, constancy, endurance, irreducibility.
To be able to endure a day of fasting, especially in these long and hot days, patience is tremendously necessary, to break the routine as we do throughout this month patience is necessary, to accept the mood swings to which we are subjected throughout the month of Ramadan, patience is necessary, To control our nafs that asks us for and embellishes our food and drink, patience is necessary; Without patience, without knowing, since knowing is really broader than patience, without knowing there is no possible fasting, and if there is no fasting there is no reward that we have mentioned.
That is why this month, the month of Ramadan is known as the month of patience; Shahru Sabr.
Because it is not possible to fast if you are not soaked in patience and that is something that we all know, we have all experienced, what allows us to continue our fast is patience and perseverance, without it, we would not be able to fast.
So we have the reward of fasting, a reward that only Allah knows and that the Messenger of Allah shows us part of in the hadith that we mentioned at the beginning, we have the element of effort, necessary to fulfill the fast and any other act that Allah commands us, and we have the quality of patience, of perseverance, which is what gives us the firmness necessary to observe the fast.
But there is another quality, which is totally linked and linked to fasting, in fact the month of Ramadan is also known by the name of this noble quality and this quality is sincerity, to the ijlas; What prevents us from eating something in the privacy of our home?
The sincerity that we fast is done by Allah.
And this is a wonderful thing, because how many people we know who are careless in their obligatory prayer, if not not doing it, but then they do the fast of Ramadan.
Although there are many people who criticize this, if they do not do salat so that they will be suffering with fasting, I personally praise it and it is something that amazes me and that tells me, that in their hearts there is some sincerity, however little it is, there is some sincerity, so there is a foundation on which to build and if Allah wills it can be built.

An entire ummah, that of Islam, every year, for a whole month, affirms itself, builds itself around fasting, declaring its attachment to Allah, showing its deep roots, even though as we have said some of them do not even do salat. The rigor of fasting, welcomed with satisfaction, welcomed as that field in which to harvest and in the next life we will reap its fruits, symbolizes the readiness of the entire Ummah of Islam to follow and obey their Lord, above all things, and can anyone say that there is no sincerity in this? Even in solitude, or in the most remote places on earth, every Muslim who fasts not only “abides” by this command of Islam but personally becomes the sign of a solidarity that unites him in the depths of his being with the rest of the Muslims. Fasting thus serves as a bridge to Allah and Islam, supported by every Muslim with powerful gestures and deeds. And this is another of the most wonderful aspects of Ramadan, the aspect or the social form that it has, the feeling in your own body the needs of others, the feeling in yourself the hunger and thirst that millions of people suffer and that should lead you to give generously; remember the words of the Messenger Muhammad: “Remember, through your hunger and thirst in this month, the thirst and hunger of the Day of Resurrection. Give sadaqa generously to your poor and destitute; respect your elders and have mercy on your children; strengthen the bonds with your relatives.” In short, fasting, with the effort it entails and the patience and sincerity it requires, is a constant accumulation of what will weigh in our favor on the scales on Accountability Day; and it is at the same time something that leads you to humility and gratitude, for it makes you recognize all that Allah has given you. Now, we are able to fulfill the fast, with its dose of effort and suffering, but finally we fulfill our month of Ramadan. That, which is an achievement without a doubt, is also a double-edged sword. Why? Because we have been able to deprive ourselves of what our appetites and desires call us to for a whole month; we have been on the alert not to fall into things that would nullify the value and reward of fasting, we have strived to attain the fast of the elite and in some cases Allah has granted it and made it possible. That transformation that we have and that we are experiencing throughout this month, because no one can deny that it is a complete transformation of our habits and our way of life, is a test against us; Well, what it shows us is that we are capable of doing it, we are capable of defeating our NAFS, we are capable of imposing ourselves on our appetites and desires, in short, we are capable of changing our reality and our situation. But then, unfortunately and this happens with practically all the Muslims of the world, once Ramadan ends we let our nafs fly freely again with hardly any opposition.

We have said that one of the keys to being able to observe the fast is as-sabr.
Patience and perseverance are tools that we must always count on to make our efforts, to achieve our goals and objectives, to improve the quality of our heart, to beautify our character, to correct our relationships with others, a relationship that must always be based on excellence.
That patience that we are able to display in Ramadan is the very source of all our strength.
Deepening patience throughout Ramadan, discovering that we are capable of sustaining an effort, of enduring in order to achieve a goal, that we are capable of being immune to hunger and thirst, that is, to all difficulties that oppose our purposes, all this should serve us for the rest of our lives.
With Ramadan we learn a lot about ourselves, we learn a lot about ourselves, that’s why it’s so necessary to reflect on the month of Ramadan.
No more and no less than we check the strength of our will, we discover our possibilities, that we can overcome the obstacles that come our way, that we are capable of putting our heart into what we want and moving it forward, of giving up things in order to conquer dreams.
This is one of the secrets of the month of Ramadan, it is one of its blessings, it is one of its wisdoms, it is as if Allah says to us: “I am going to test you with a month in which you are going to know yourselves, in which I am going to show you how you yourselves are able to fulfill those tests, therefore I will forgive you and in my generosity I will cover you with my mercy.”
At the end of every Ramadan is a month to know ourselves, to know our weaknesses, our strengths and our weaknesses, and observe the mercy of Allah, it is that Allah’s generosity towards us is incredible, so that we can do it, to facilitate that path for us, he locks up the shayatin, imprisons the jinn who can prevent us with that purpose of fasting which is to know ourselves.
Sheikh Ahmed Bermejo www.ahmedbermejo.com