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That there are many people who perhaps are fasting, but they get nothing from fasting except for staying hungry and thirsty. And there are many people, perhaps they stand in qiyam ulayl, and they get nothing from the qiyam except for exhaustion. Meaning that Imam Ghazali is saying that there are people who just simply they stay hungry, they stay thirsty, and that is it. They don't pray well, they don't fast well, they are engaged in sin all day long, or they're wasting their time in other frivolous things or things that are not productive. In this dunya or the akhirah, this is the fasting, he says. He refers to it as. And Imam Ghazali says that we need to get out of this if we are fasting and we find ourselves in this category. The second category of people, he says, is it is the fasting of the people who are very exceptional. And he says that these are the kind of people who stay hungry, they stay thirsty, but during the entire month of Ramadan, they are guarding their eyes from seeing something that is haram. They're guarding their tongue from engaging in backbiting, in gossip, in arguments, and in foul speech. Meaning that profanity should not be part, even as it is, even if we're not fasting, profanity should not be part of our vocabulary. It should not be part of our habits, something that is very common that we find today in families. Try to stay away from that. Additionally, he says, guarding the ears mean that not only being the listener of backbiting or listening to someone engage in vain talk or you're part of that conversation, but even in this day and age, staying away from music also, these are things. There are a lot of our youth and a lot of people in our community who engage in listening to music. We stay away from music completely. Whether it's Ramadan or not, we should be staying away from music completely. But especially in the month of Ramadan, we stay away from these kind of things. Number four is guarding the hands and the feet from doing something that is wrong or going to a place, using our feet to go to a place to commit sin or to commit haram in the month of Ramadan, Imam Ghazali is saying that we should stay away from that. Another thing that we should stay away from is guarding the stomach from consumption of doubtful food or haram food, anything that is considered as doubtful or haram. Staying away from that in the month of Ramadan. And finally, he says that avoiding overindulgence in the time of Iftar. So meaning that a lot of times people go for iftar and they overeat, they eat so much, and what happens is that then they cannot stand up in qiyam. Then these are the kind of people who will say, I'm gonna stay at home, I'm gonna pray iraqa salatul qiyam or taraweeh. And then each raka and inna atayina, that is it khalas, my quota is done for the night. My iraqa is done. I've observed the Sunnah of the Prophet. The Prophet will not overeat in iftar. He will not recite inna athena kulwallah in his qiyam. So this is something that we have to make sure that we do or we stay away from this and we do the other things that Imam Ghazali has said. Imam Ghazali says that anyone who does this, then not only will they of course taste the sweetness of fasting in Ramadan, but they will benefit tremendously and they will grow self discipline in their life. Then he says the third category, which he says that this is the fasting of the elite, the song of Hususul Husus. Okay, so one is Husus, the people who fast exceptionally well. This is Hususul Husous, even double the amount of being special. And he says that these are the kind of people who do everything in category number two. But in addition to that, throughout the entire day, they're reading Quran or their tongues are moist with the dhikr of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And especially when the last ten nights they roll around as we find that there's a hadith of the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam that he would tie his waistband. It was an expression that now the time is very serious. These are the last 10 days, the last portion of Ramadan. Now we need to give everything that we can, what's left in our tank, you understand? We do the best that we can. So Imam Ghazali says that a person who can do this, then truly that taqwa that will be established and they will be able to attain in the month of Ramadan will last them for a good period of time, even after Ramadan. And brothers and sisters, this is the essence. Ramadan is a time to practice. You go here, right next door to Epic, you find this is not a police station over here. This is a police academy. What do they do in a police academy? For example, they train how to drive between the cones, right? They train the police Officers, how to. How to shoot. They train the police officers in every single thing that they need to know in order for them to become an effective police officer. Right? That's what they do. So you have to go through that training. Why? Because when the real time comes around when they need to put those skills into action, then they are fully ready, right? Yes or no. So it's a time of practice. And then why? So that when the time actually comes to apply those skills, they can. Ramadan is no different. Shaitaan is away. Shaitaan is chained up. This is Allah giving us. This is a routine. This is our time to prepare and practice that Taqwa. Why? Because once. Once Shaitaan is out, okay? Once Shaitaan is out, that is when. And we all go back. We go back to our normal lives. Majority of us are not fasting. Majority of us are not reading Quran. Majority of us are not reading qiyamullay or praying Qiyamul layl. Then it's your Taqwa that helps you navigate and helps you get through. You understand? The month of Ramadan is that time of training. And this is why. Something that we need to keep in mind when Allah talks about fasting in the Quran, Think about this. He says, siyam has been ordained upon you the way it was ordained upon others. I'm asking all of you, is there any mention of Ramadan in this verse? Is there any mention of Ramadan in this verse? No. You know why? Because fasting in general. See, if you fast for 30 days and you're reading Quran for 30 days and you're protecting yourself from indulging in sin for 30 days, and you're doing Dhikr every day for 30 days, you're doing everything that you need to do in order to make your fasting exceptional, then the taqwa that you are going to gain now, you're going to use that taqwa after the month of Ramadan. But then when you are fasting, additionally on Mondays and Thursdays, when you're fasting the six days of Shawwal, when you're fasting on the 13th, the 14th and the 15th of every single month, then that taqwa remains refreshed. Because whether you're fasting in Ramadan or you're fasting beyond Ramadan, fasting has that mechanism that builds taqwa within you. It does not matter what time of the year you're fasting, fasting builds that taqwa inside of you. So this is why, if you're fasting throughout the entire year that taqwa remains refreshed, inshallah. Now the question is that what are the things that can cause us to be devoid of that spirit of Ramadan? There are several things that I want to share with you. Inshaallah, and we'll finish on this. But there are several things that people do that because of which they lose the spirit of Ramadan. Number one, as I talked about earlier, overindulgence in food and especially iftar preparations. Iftar is a time where we come together as a family. We break our fasting, but it is a time where we should even try to help our sisters in the kitchen if they are in the kitchen cooking food and so forth. So the man goes in and he helps out. The whole family engages in preparing the dinner so that it puts less pressure on the mother or the women of the family to prepare all the food and prepare everything and then the men just come eat and they leave. That's not the way it should be going on in our families. The family comes together, they help prepare the iftar, they sit down as a family, they make dua before iftar and then even after iftar because the wife will have to also perform her qiyam. The husband has to perform his qiyam. The children, if they're old enough, they will also perform their qiyam. So the family also helps out and, and cleaning all the dinner or the mess or pick up from the table and so forth. However you sit in your family, but making sure that you clean up, you clean up as a family because the most important thing is that, and especially making sure that we don't overeat at the time of iftar. We don't overeat at the time of suhoor. That will make us lazy to come for fajr and we don't overeat at the time of iftar. That will make us lazy, especially when it comes to qiyam. Also, this is just my personal, you know, my personal opinion or my stance on the matter is that many times you might even get invited for iftar. For example, there are a lot of people who do iftar dawats and they will call you. And so the most important thing once again is that if you want to go, you go. But keep the same rules in mind is that qiyam is more important than that iftar dinner or that iftar party. So if you're going there and then you're not coming for qiyam, you are defeating the purpose. Go. No problem, go. Not only that, but there's a lot of fundraisers that happen in the month of Ramadan too. People are going to come. They may invite you to come to a certain place for a iftar dinner, and they're going to be raising money and so forth. In that situation, go if you need to. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is you eat to not overfill yourself. Eat a little bit and, and then make sure you're here back at the masjid for qiyam. This is extremely important. So we do this within our families. Number two is staying away or trying to limit our social media usage. And once again, these are things that are always about dunya wallahi. Nowadays, we sit down behind social media. You know, half an hour, 45 minutes are gone. Just because it's so addictive, by the way. And there's a science behind it. They know there are so many algorithms on the back end, you could be searching for something on Google. And then after two minutes, it will come up and it will appear on your social media feed. Why? Because everything is working, you know, internally. So whatever you're looking for, they're gonna keep on bringing it up. And in essence, it's all Dunya, Dunya, Dunya, Dunya. Like wallah, it gets difficult for people just to get out. There are times where people have come to me and told me that they're spending like six, seven hours on social media every single day. We like, I mean, like, this is a wastage of time. If we need to, if we have to, have to keep social media, we limit our usage of social media in the month of Ramadan. And the best thing is that, look, this is brothers and sisters. This is where your discipline has to come into the picture. If it's so difficult to keep your phone away, if you're living with someone, give someone else your phone past a certain time, you're not going to use your phone anymore. Now, even if you're restless at night and you can't use it, it's because your system internally has said that I need this. Just like today, there are people who are addicted to drugs. This is an addiction. Whether we want to agree with it or not, this is an addiction. For some people, this has become an addiction. They can't stay away. Every single minute, every single few minutes, they have to check any messages, any messages, anything on their notifications. Wallahi. It becomes a distraction. So that is why, especially in the month of Ramadan, this can take away from the spirit of Ramadan if not used properly. And that also means that making sure that we don't waste our time watching videos after videos, after videos. This also has to be limited in the month Ramadan. Number three is wasting time, especially at nights. And so what happens in many cases is that people will stay up all night long. And especially, you know, spring break is, by the way, coming in the month of Ramadan. Spring break is coming in Ramadan. So what happens is people are going to stay awake all night long watching tv, you know, you know, they're going to be watching Netflix prime, whatever it is. And all these things have to be avoided in the month of Ramadan. And what happens is that when now suhoor time rolls around, they will have their suhoor. They're so tired, they're so exhausted, they eat suhoor and then they don't even have enough energy to go to the masjid. So they'll pray Sat Al Fajr and then from Sat al Fajr all the way till 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, they will sleep and then they will wake up. Oh, my fasting went well. I never committed gheebah. Of course you never committed ghiba. Okay. Of course you never did anything wrong because you're sleeping most of the time. You understand? The time during the day is for ibadah at time and night is also for iba, that resting comes in the middle when we need it, you understand? But we need to utilize our nights the right way. Another thing that is also that takes away from the spirit of Ramadan is that talking too much or engaging in arguments and backbiting. As I said earlier, we try to stay away from all these kind of things. Wallahi just we, you know, there's one hadith, the Prophet, that if we were to apply it, we can stay away from majority of these things. He says, very beautiful Hadith of prophet. It is from the excellence of one's faith. Minhusni Islam al Mari it is from the excellence of a person is that they stay away from anything that does not concern them. If it does not concern you, stay away from it. If it concerns someone else, leave it, just walk away from it. It has nothing to do with us. And wallah, you'll find yourselves in a better position. So this is why it is very important that we stay away from all these kind of things. Because we might be fasting, but because we're doing gheeba towards someone else or we're backbiting about someone else, or we're slandering someone else. We are fasting but we're taking Away the ajjar or the khayr from fasting in itself. Another one which is very important is social gatherings. So one is like, for example, these iftar gatherings and so forth. But for example, getting together and have these long parties also just try to stay away from these kind of things in the month of Ramadan. And especially, especially I do have to say this, this new culture, unfortunately, of something called Suhoor Fest wallahi. I don't understand. May Allah grant taqwa to those who are the organizers behind it, okay? Because wallahi, it does no good. It does no good, okay? When you have young men and young women all in one place. Like, we don't even find something like this in the time of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. We don't find any of this in the lives of our ulama and our salaf and so forth. And wallahi, in the name of money, you have these people who organize these Suhoor fest wallahi does not make any sense to me. I have never been. There are a lot of people who have gone, but it does no good. I have met people who told me they will stand in the line for one hour for their food. Just to get this much food, you rather just sit at home and eat yourself. But staying in this long line and then mingling with people who are non mahram, and it's just chaotic. And so many people are there. First of all is that people are saying, okay, let's not do this in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, because they used to do it sometimes in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, let's do it in the first 20 days. There's more fadilah if you do in the first 20 days, okay? So that's why we try to stay away and let's be vocal about it. There are many people who are scared to say this. I'm vocal about it. There is no need to have these Suhoor Fest in the month of Ramadan, because what's happening in our Ramadan is, unfortunately, it is more our Ramadan. I'm saying this without any. Without like any. I'm not sugarcoating this matter at all. Our Ramadans today here, I cannot speak for any other city, but that was Fort Worth. Our Ramadans are more about socializing, wallahi. It's more about socializing. Even on the last 10 nights of Ramadan, when you find so many people going from one masjid, one place to another place and so forth, they're going there for what mostly is socializing. Yeah, they might go listen to this many lectures, this much Qur'an, this much Qiyam, and then they think that Mashaallah, I have fulfilled the haqq of the night of Laythul Qadr. No, you haven't. You understand. And then going and attending these kind of gatherings is mostly socializing. And it is the month of Ramadan that we have throughout the entire year, socialize as much as we want. But Ramadan is that one time that we limit or we eliminate socializing completely. So this is what we need to do in the month of Ramadan. Also as Ramadan does, you know, we pass by Ramadan, we often find that initially there is a big burst of energy. Everyone is here at the Masjid, everyone is fasting every day, of course. But then people are coming for qiyam. And then come the nights from the fifth night of Ramadan all the way to the 20th day of Ramadan, this middle first it was 10, 10, 10. But now every year we're getting more lazier, you know. So now it is not just the first 10 days, it's the first five nights where Mashallah, there's a boost of energy. And then from night five all the way to night 20, people become extremely lazy. And we have to make sure that, no, we got to keep the ball rolling, keep on everyday Qur'an every day. Of course, we're fasting every day, every day, coming to the masjid as much as we can come to the masjid. And even if we have nothing to do better, instead of sitting down, wasting our time, sleep if you need to, catch up on your rest if you need to, but stay away from anything that's considered as a distraction. And, and make sure that we do not neglect the Qur'an, especially in the month of Ramadan. Another important thing that we must do in the month of Ramadan, that often when we don't do it takes away from the spirit of Ramadan, is making dua, making sure that we make dua often, we make dua a few times and that's al khalas. No more dua. No, there are times of the day when duas are accepted at the time of Suhoor, right before Fajr, that is the time of Tahajjud, we make dua at that time throughout the day, we make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. At the time of iftar, we make dua. If you come for Salat and is between Adhan and Iqamah, make Dua at that time, if it's raining, make dua at that time. There are so many opportunities to make dua. So making sure that we make dua in the month of Ramadan, and also part of that dua is always making dua to Allah that he forgives our sins. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in a hadith, the woe to the man who found the month of Ramadan and never asked Allah for forgiveness. So this is why we always make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he gives us the tawfiq to that he gives us tawfiq to utilize Ramadan the right way, but at the same time, he does forgive us. And finally, the last thing that I would say, which is very important, that if we don't do, we will lose a spirit of Ramadan. And that is a balance when it comes to work, life, family, and fasting. So fasting, a lot of times, people, they are extremely tired because of their fasting, and then they're working. So a lot of times what happens is that in the name of family and in the name of work, the last thing that, of course, you know, that gets. Does often suffer is all the spirituality that suffers. So we make sure that we give. This is often what happens. Unfortunately, we give all of our energy to work, all of our energy to our family and whatever is left behind, the, you know, the leftovers. Then we try to give that to our Qur'an and so forth. No, we try to create some kind of a balance. You know, we have to go and work. No problem. We have to go and work. But then we come back from work, we utilize our time the right way, and then talk to our family before Ramadan comes, how we will utilize our schedule before Ramadan comes, so that when Ramadan comes, you're giving an adequate amount of time to your family. They deserve your time also. But at the same time, you're giving enough time to grow your spirituality. So these are things that we must keep in mind. Once again, this is all about the spirit of Ramadan. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant all of us hitawfiq to benefit from the spirit of Ramadan. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us grow. Grow us in our taqwa, in our shukr, in our gratitude to Allah, and in our rushd in becoming more mature as a Muslim through the month of Ramadan. Ameer ab alameen.