As-salamu alaykum and good morning. It's Friday morning and welcome to today's morning baraka. It's approaching the night's coming up to the 10th of Ramadan, which is the Shahada of the mother of the imams and the mother of Sayyidah Fatima. Sayyidah Khadija, peace be upon her. These nights will be coming up, so keep us in your du'as, inshaAllah. InshaAllah and indeed the Shahada of Sayyidah Khadija will be approaching soon and it's important to commemorate these nights. And remember, Sayyidah Khadija, she was the first and most beloved wife of our Holy Prophet, peace be upon him. And in the first couple of years, we still remember that she was the one who supported the Muslims financially. Yes indeed, Sayyidah. We should be prepared for the next coming up days for Sayyidah Khadija Shahada. Let's see what we have coming up for you this morning also. We have the Holy Quran, the very own Mustafa Ali. And it will be recited in the beautiful verses of the Quran, in particular from Al Imran. We also have brother Ibrahim Ansari in the chat with our daily du'as. And this morning, we're going to be looking at reciting a du'a before iftar, so it's really important to know this. We also have sister du'a with spiritual upliftment from the Holy Quran. Really looking forward to that this morning. How to benefit from the Holy Quran and what to recite to get the most blessings in this holy month of Ramadan. InshaAllah. There we also have our nutrition and health. Brother Bilal will be looking and will be in the kitchen discussing fish and bread with life coach and MMP practitioner Fahima Muhammad and chef Ben. And I'm looking forward to that. And it's very important to have a band that's diet in this holy month. We've talked to our chef in the house as well. In the month of Ramadan, we should be praying and paying attention to etiquette and those less fortunate. Sister Zahra and sister Masoom Jaffa will be discussing this in Ramadan etiquette. The topic is du'a and prayer and how we can make the most of the holy month of Ramadan. Definitely. I'm really looking forward to sitting down with sister Masoom again. But even more than that, can't wait for our cute little Abbas. Bless him. He's once again stayed up to share the lights of our morning with Dami Hadith. Masha Allah. He's so cute. Bless him. And to end this fantastic show, before your morning prayer, we have our very own side Muslim Shah from Akam SOS on the couch with your questions and queries. Can't wait to hear from him. The topic for today is fasting and medicine. Fantastic. Right now, it's time for our morning barakah competition details. You and a friend could win the chance to visit Imam Hussain and Abul Fazil Abbas. Peace and blessings be upon them for July 2018. For the competition details, stay tuned for Brother Ahmed. You want the chance to visit Imam Hussain and Abul Fazil Abbas. Peace be upon them both. While you've come to the right place. Morning Barakah is giving away two free tickets to Karbala this July 2018. I'm standing here with the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussain, alaihi salam, behind me to give you the chance to send your salutations to the Imam in person. The exclusive morning barakah competition is the chance for you and a friend to visit the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussain. For your chance to win, answer the following question. Name two names given to the Holy Land of Karbala in Iraq. We need your emails with your answer and details which include a telephone number, phone name and address. Entries are free of charge and closed by the 30th of June 2018. All entries after may not be accepted so please put your entries in before the deadline. To enter, you must be over the age of 18. Right now it's time for my favorite part of the show, the Quran recitation with our brother Mustafa Ali. I'm really looking forward to this section. Absolutely, it definitely nourishes your soul. Indeed. Welcome brother Mustafa. Thank you. As-salamu alaikum. Wa alaikum as-salam wa rahmatullah. How are you doing today UK? Alhamdulillah, good to see you. Good, good, alhamdulillah. Likewise, so inshaAllah you'll be reciting Surah Ali Imran, ayahs 190 to 195. Yes, inshaAllah. InshaAllah. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. MashAllah, that was excellent, that was excellent. Be very beautiful recitation. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. It's always nice to hear the recitation of the Holy Quran. It's a blessing indeed and I'm really looking forward to this section. Also, the duas of Ramadan, brother Ibrahim. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. How are you doing? Alhamdulillah, how are you? Good to see you. Welcome to the show again. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me once again. Always a pleasure, always. Absolutely, enjoying the wisdom that you're sharing with us and helps to connect with these duas. So this morning we're going to be discussing Dua for Iftar. Yes, inshaAllah. So would you like to give us a bit of background or perhaps recite however you... InshaAllah, definitely. Generally, we are on the table. It's about Iftar time finally after what, 19 hours. So I think... Unless you're in Australia. Unless you're in Australia. Even worse, Argentina. I think they have like what, 8 hours or something? Really? Yeah, so maybe we should catch up like that. Definitely. A beautiful way to start before you move is by going to Allah swt. So I recommend the Dua that we have. In the name of Allah the Merciful. In the name of Allah the Merciful. In the name of Allah the Merciful. Beautiful, thank you so much. That was very refreshing to hear. And what's the translation of the Dua? So you start off with... O Allah, for you, I fasted. And with what you have granted me, I broke my fast. So it's relating to the food. And my reliance is on you. So I rely on you. O Allah swt. Then you carry on in the name of Allah. O Allah, for you we have fasted again. And with the food that you have granted me, I broke my fast. So O Allah accept from us. Then it carries on to say You are the hero and the knower of what we have done. And you can hear us right now. So just listen to us and accept this from us. And then it carries on to say In the name of Allah again. The beneficent, the Merciful. O He whose indulgence is boundless. Forgive us. So you're asking for forgiveness just before you start. Just after you've ended your fast and just before you start your meal as well. So much humility in that, isn't it? It's the gratitude. It's the acknowledgement of His power and to say that we are sinful from whatever we have done. Except forgive us. Even after finishing a fast so that we don't get that. It's a nice reminder that I know, hey, look at me, man. So hey, I just done a fast. Like I'm doing Allah our favour. Remind yourself that you still need forgiveness. Still ask. That's from the one that's the most generous. I think we even with these du'as as you're reciting them. And we're so blessed to actually hear them that even in the school of Ahalbeid we have so much mercy through these du'as because when you look at other schools of thoughts and people, you talk to people, what do you recite when you open your fast? What do you recite when you close? And no one has these paths. I think it shows the completion of our religion. Definitely the completion. So we have du'as that almost have to recite when you enter your house, when you leave your house. When you're about to start an exam, when you're anything, anything you can think of, there's a du'a, there's a dhikr of Allah SWT. I think that's very beautiful. One of the things about du'as which I love so much about the du'as of Ahalbeid is that they're like a classroom so it's not just a prayer and a request for forgiveness or for blessing, but also the du'a that make you think about, okay, so it's teaching you the servant and the relationship with the Lord, you know, and what one should ask for. There's a bit of theology and philosophy and all these different ideas that's compressed into this very short recitation. Best of teachers, aren't they? They are our living examples of how to speak to Allah. How to live, how to live, yeah, yeah. Definitely. So in terms of those people that, you know, bless them forever the long day, especially in the northern hemisphere where we are at the moment, long and fast and... More blessings. Absolutely. Longer day, more blessings.  But it's really important to give yourself this couple of minutes to actually acknowledge who gave you this food and, you know, who gave you little figures in it to go through. You know, that is very beautiful, but I would add on to that something even more. Like we mentioned before, dua is closest to Allah swt. Now we are in the state of hunger and thirst. I think at this specific time we are closest to Allah swt. He saw our struggle. Maybe out of his mercy, and I would say maybe just because we can't say definitely, but if I was just a bit more confident I would have said definitely, but maybe just by Allah swt looking at the struggle that this servant has gone through after this Huda listening to his obligation that was given to him through the Prophet by Allah swt maybe just maybe he will say, you know what, this servant of mine has gone through a lot. Let me accept this dua from him. Let me accept his prayers. And therefore we have in our recommendations, not only is it mustahabtur but there are many other du'as not only that. You are asked just before you start eating ask your wishes to Allah swt. Ask him. He will grant you. He will grant you. You've gone through a lot of struggle. Allah swt, this is part of his mercy. And in that time, it's very crucial isn't it? It's that desperation to put that food in, give yourself the energy. And it's like when you complete your Salah they say that, you know, the one that gets up from his prayer without actually asking Allah for a hajj it's like the seeds are scattered and you don't have a bird who can pick to eat.  So to utilize those moments, isn't it? Definitely. Before your prayer. 100%. But I think in one of your previous mornings we spoke about the sincerity that's important. Yeah. I don't know if you can, you recall that dua that you would, it's quite a lengthy one but it was talking about sincerity. How much do you think that counts in sort of, do you think Allah's mercy is endless? 100%. It's infinite. Do you think that's a crucial, critical, sort of prerequisite to have when you're fasting because it was sincerity while you're doing it or was it just, oh, I'm doing it because you know, my mum will beat me, my dad will beat me? No, of course. This, what you're referring to right now is the sermon of the Prophet in the month of Ramadhan and in which he says, pray to Allah with pure intentions and with clean hearts. Now, 100%, like we said, within sincerity there is more chance of acceptance and the thing is, sincerity, I think, lies under this where you accept with whatever Allah has given you. I think that's part of being sincere. So you ask Allah, SubhanAllah, and not for just anything you say, oh, Allah didn't grant me my wishes and I would relate to that, dua'al of tata'a and dua'al of tata'a personally, I love reciting it in the month of Ramadhan and I would say, arguably is my favourite dua'a, my favourite dua'a. The longer one. The long one, the one that you recite after Salat al-Maghla. Now, it has specific parts within it which, again, it shows humility and it shows how much we've come short towards Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, even in this acceptance of the dua'a. I did actually bring with me a part of it just because I thought it would be mentioned, nice to mention. Indeed, excellent. The first, this part that I want to focus on for a bit is, Allahumma, I want to ask you little from abundance I want to ask you with a great need for this for you and for you to put aside that's nothing for you. It's very easy for you. It's very easy for you. It's very easy for you. It's very easy for you. For me it is a lot it is a lot, but for you it is very easy. And then this is the beauty. Allahumma inna afwaka anvanbi, oh Allah, for you to forgive my sins. Wa tajawaza ka ankhatayati, and for you to put away my mistakes. Wa safha ka anzulmi, and to forgive me for my oppressions. Wa sitra ka alaqabih amali, and for you to put like a cloth over every bad action that I have done. Wa halmaka an kathiri jurmi, an dama kana min khatayi wa amadi, when it was from my fault, and when I did it purposely. Atma'ani fi anasaluka ma laa astawjibuhu mink. Alladi razaqtani min rahmatik. It made me ask you for what? Do you know what? I don't even deserve this, but it's from your mercy that I'm asking you. And then it carries on, it carries on. And then this part I think is even, even more beautiful. Fa'in abta'ani atabtu bejahli alaik. So if you don't ask me, out of my own childishness, out of my little knowledge, I say this is because of you. I didn't get this. Atabtu bejahli alaik. Wa laa'allal ladhi abta'ani wa khayron lili alamika bi aakibatil umor. And maybe, just maybe, what has made your answer come slower is out of your infinite knowledge that you have given me what is better for me. And I think that is very, very beautiful. And it carries on, it carries on. Inna ka tadhouni fa'awalli anka.  Wa tatahabbabu ilaya fa'atabaghadu ilaik. And you come to show me love and mercy and you know I reply with anger. And then, wa tatawadadu ilaia fa laa'aqbalu minka. And you show me more compassion. And I just turn my head away like that. So it's, ka anna liya tatawul alaik. And it's as if, I have that chance to, I have the right, I have the right to act like that towards you. Fa lam yamna aka darika minar rahmatili wal-ahsanili. Yet, that did not, this allow you from showing me your mercy. Subhanallah, subhanallah. I just think it's, I thank you for bringing that. I think that's just sort of, I think it just gives a purpose of how we are supposed to think in this month. Definitely. Obviously, if you're reminding yourself every night of those du'as and you're citing it, the connection that you have to Allah that, what are we? And yet, He loves us infinitely. And His love, and if we recognize His love, even for a bit, actually gratitude, then how much mercy more would He give us? Definitely. Subhanallah. Thank you so much for that. Thank you very much. That's all we've got time for today. Thank you. And inshallah, keep us in your du'as. Insha'Allah likewise. Insha'Allah. We ask Allah to accept our du'as. Insha'Allah. Insha'Allah. So now we have time. Next up is Barakat House with Abdu'a Bakzumi and the benefits of Ramadan. Assalamu alaikum. I am Da'am Makzumi and I'm here to show you how the Holy Quran can improve your life. Allah says in this verse, if He has sent down the Quran upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and coming apart from the fear of Allah. And these examples we set to present to the people, perhaps they will give thought. Do you know the benefits of the Holy month of Ramadan? Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed so that what better time we have to reconnect with ourselves with Allah SWT. It was sent to mankind as a complete guide to guide us. Allah SWT indeed has blessed us with this holy Quran from guidance, from the dark into the light for us to recite it and to learn from it. Now, what are the benefits of this holy month of Ramadan? Well, let's talk about how the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him. He has this khutbah, a speech, specifically for the holy month of Ramadan. And every year I'm used to hearing it from my father. And this year, I decided to share it with you because when you read the speech, the khutbah that Rasulullah has given to the people before the holy month of Ramadan to remind us of how much it has benefits and how it has blessings. It makes you wait for this month and it makes you understand how special and how great of a blessing this holy month is. So, refer to your Mafati-i-Hijjnan. It's in every Mafati-i-Hijjnan. It's available in the sections of the month of Ramadan. So in the beginning, when you go to the section of the month of Ramadan, the first page, it's in small writing, but it's the khutbah of Rasulullah of the month of Ramadan. Now, I'll just give you six quick benefits that Rasulullah has said in his speech.  Then he says, ayyuhannas O you people Inna anfusakum marhuna bi'a'malikum meaning yourself depends on the deeds you have done.  Vuhulakum faqila min awzarakum your backs are heavy why are they heavy? because of the sins that we have. So what do we do? Rasulullah says, khaffufu anha bi'tuwi sujudakum when you're in the posture of doing sujud imagine those sins fall out. So when you pray, Rasulullah says, fa khaffufu anha bi'tuwi sujudakum so remove those sins with your long sujud. Allah has put so much emphasis and importance for the month of Ramadan because it is the holy month and we are guests to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The prophet continues in his speech and he says, ayyuhannas inna huqad aqbala ilaykum shahrullah bil barakah wa rahma wal makhfarat the month of Ramadan has come to you and it's giving you mercy and forgiveness. shahrun hu'a anda Allahi awvudul shuhur it is one of the greatest month wa ayyamihi awvudul al-ayyam and the days are the greatest days wa layalihi awvudul layali and its nights are the greatest nights wa sa'atihi awvudul al-sa'at and the hours of the month of Ramadan are the greatest hours hu'a shahrun du'itun fihi ila ziafatullah it is a month that we are called upon to be the guests of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what better benefits can we have other than that? taqabbalallahu a'malakum wa Ramadan mubarak Nutrition and health so I have with me two guests today as-salamu alaykum brother Ben alaykum as-salam how are you? I'm good, I'm good and the NLP practitioner sister Fahima Muhammad as-salamu alaykum sister alaykum as-salam how are you doing? very well, thank you so Ben, what do you have in store for us today? yeah, today we have a traditional Irish bread to show you guys at home really simple to make simple? very simple I see assortment of stuff around yeah, it has got a few fishes and knives and stuff but this recipe doesn't have any yeast in it okay leave it to rise for an hour and then have a second rise and then all that blarney you don't need to do any of that it's just really simple the buttermilk reacts with the bicarb immediate reaction you'll see the dough start to change before you and- before your very eyes? that's what makes the dough rise also you don't need to knead it you don't need to work your arm out for 10 minutes to get a great loaf it's just so simple okay that's really interesting I love bread but it always puts me off because of the time factor and the fact that it is quite bloating and people that are worried about their diet and looking at the ingredients over here because it doesn't have yeast those with gluten intolerant and all these things you would not get that bloating feeling so soda bread is a very good type of bread to use and have generally not just for Ramadan but I think it's really good for a lot of people that would actually love to have bread nutrition wise? nutrition wise as well as the fact that it's really quick and easy exactly I've got a scene that's believing because you keep saying that word quick and I'm just quick I'm not saying I don't believe you but I just want to see this thing play out when I tell you I'm 50% done already okay that's how simple it is bosh bosh so if you need some more water just to bring it together that's fine I'm using about 300 ml of buttermilk yep and about how much 375 of flour and you can mix up the flour if you want to use plain if you want to use whole milk whole milk is great for don't you use one of those I'm not in the right part no no don't need a rolling pin for this really simple just your hands and some elbow grease so I'm just going to bring it together with my hands to create to create a ball and that's going to be the basis for our for our life a lot of people are afraid of having bread and they cut it down when it comes to their diet but the thing is again it's about having the balance and this sort of recipe is amazing for you to continue having what you love but as a healthy option healthy that's a good word healthy we like healthy healthy option as well as being very fast and efficient for you to even make first thing in the morning to have the house smell of fresh you know freshly made bread it's just so amazing you cannot beat it exactly and you don't add a whole load of sugar because a lot of processed bread or you know high street made bread is full of sugars yes yes so that is pretty much it we've got our ball made we've got our loaf made literally and I must stress I did have a little bit of salt to the side of that bicarb that's going to add flavour and create a really delicious loaf so just a tad just a tad just a tad yeah your preference every baker needs their signature okay so if you're baking at home it's great to have a signature cut on the loaf just to make sure people know that it's yours right right so let's see your signature move this isn't mine I can't show people otherwise they'll steal it oh it's not that I'm going to show you a generic one just like that okay and there we go that pot goes into the oven at about 230 okay you need quite a hot oven it needs to be very hot and that goes into the oven and how long would you put that in for about 20 minutes 25 minutes so how quick is that that's amazing do you come across people that like a lot of people that are trying to get off the bread yes again you know I think life is about balance and it definitely is like that with food and you can have everything that you like but within consistency of how much you have and with like I said a balanced approach a balanced approach exactly but this is not even about the balance because this one does not leave you feeling bloated is having greens there which is really simple and buttermilk is really good for you and it actually will help you not think so you know sort of fall out so there's some advantages to buttermilk I'm told I believe that there's some advantages yes could you refresh refresh us on that at least you know a couple of the advantages of buttermilk as opposed to what does it do what does it do does it help with digestion is it true definitely that's what it's really about you've actually told you've actually answered my question okay okay so yes it does help with digestion okay okay and it's a really good alternative because again it doesn't make you feel bloated and we're using other ingredients here which is going to be on top of the bread and with generally bread having it on its own you don't need to have a specific sort of ingredient with regards to it has to be like what we're making right now what are we doing absolutely so I'm just going to show you this is one we made earlier oh wow there we have it oh fresh Irish soda bread traditional really delicious so quick so easy and look how pretty that looks come on you said Irish Irish is Irish oh don't mention that yes it's Irish originally from Ireland that's how they made their loaves they wouldn't use yeast they would use soda oh different different different and with this sort of bread you can actually have it on its own or as we're going to do today we're going to add some ingredients on top of that I'm going to cut this to make it into a whole meal so that's what's really important about having this type of bread so that it actually becomes a little bit more than what you would normally have and it will actually turn into something a little bit more brown that's it because it's whole meal indeed that's switched up excellent we had half and half plain flour with whole milk flour more healthy more delicious the secret ingredient that's it I'm just going to slice no longer a secret mind you your secrets out so Fahima tell us more tell us more so basically having soda bread and then having whatever ingredients that you're going to put on there can actually be a good snack or a proper meal that you would like to have it can even be for the morning or the evening depending on what you put on top okay okay so for today what we're having is so not too heavy for the morning you know some people struggle for their first meal of the day they like something light or something absolutely having avocado okay going to make a little guacamole avocado is amazing it's a super food it's fatty it's really healthy for you in a sense that even for people that are sort of having chemotherapy it helps them with the effects of chemotherapy okay okay so again nausea again speeding you know confusion things like that and also again avocado is an ingredient on its own which is difficult for most of us to digest so you can actually put it in with other sort of recipes okay compliment sorry compliment yes yes yes a lot of people have it in salads they're very hard to get aren't they seasonal type um to be honest um we get our avocados from abroad so we're good we're good we've got it all year round if we want it genuinely we have a lot of fruit and vegetables all year round in this country so we're quite lucky with that I mean certain times of the year it could be a little bit you know better quality but at the same time I think we're very you know fortunate in order to have everything that we need most of the time that's it all year round absolutely yes and I can see you've got fish over there I've got some mackerel I've got some smoked mackerel really delicious okay high in omega 3 obviously great for the brain um and yeah really high in nutrients just delicious I think we need more of course of fish in our diet because um she helps us it's as well it really gives us you know the balance that we need and you find people that have a lot of more fish in the far east they actually live longer they have better people in the Mediterranean as well they eat a lot of fish right and the oils are amazing for you just be careful because it's fish it could be tasty a little bit salty and obviously we want to make sure that we don't having that sort of taste so during Ramadan you know have extra water cut down a little bit on your salt dehydrate it you know having ingredients that have already natural water in there people get very dehydrated as we do I've been seeing people left right and say oh wow I'm so thirsty more than hungry people are always talking about thirst dehydration Ramadan anything that we can we can work on that nutrition they say to have um ideally like you know six to eight glasses of water but obviously it can help you so things like you know the salads you know anything green even a watermelon things like that that could really help and make a difference if you add that to your general food and obviously cut down on caffeine cut down on you know salt generally is that will actually you know keep you more hydrated so that's another clever way of knowing how to keep hydrated in that sense and obviously staying away from the heat obviously your activity has to be a lot less monitor yourself monitor yourself because again we want to keep a balance in carbohydrates sugars turn into fats of course we need to keep it balanced but again because we're fasting we do need a selection and a variety I see sorry just before I go ahead you've added something red in there what is that yes so some dry chili flakes all those people out there that love love extra flavour love some heat give it a punch that's it that's it it looks beautiful it's a lovely colour yes it's a meal in itself really having the bread it's quite filling quite filling it's going to keep you going throughout the day and that's really what you want with a meal like this it's light it's easy that's it really easy I mean how quick was that bread to make cool cool it looks the part wow it looks the part indeed indeed very simple really high nutrients as always just a fantastic dish I would love to eat this every day if I could and I do sometimes you indulge you indulge with the health benefits of that even generally like I said we need to create new habits in the style in which we eat yes so we need to educate ourselves on ingredients on food on health generally and health not just generally by listening to other people what they say but knowing our own bodies and with that then we can actually have the benefits of having all the types of food that we do like looks wonderful it looks absolutely brilliant thank you however fish and mackerel in particular is not on my radar but I would love to find out I mean you're my guest right yes so I would love to find out for him mackerel because it lowers cholesterol and blood pressure so it's actually really healthy for you and even though we have this lens and have this way of thinking that we don't like certain things but we need to add to that perspective and actually try different variations because with that you've got the chili and it could actually give you a different feel so it'll be something that maybe you can actually try out or even you know you can try different types of fish that's not the issue so for today we've prepared this because it's very quick, simple and easy so you can make the same thing for those who don't like mackerel if salmon's your favourite you can flip it of course it's versatile it's open for interpretation it's up to you guys absolutely I kind of go for the more exotic fishes from the Caribbean just my thing up to you guys I'm really really eager I hope you enjoy it you're a brave cookie taking one for the team for him we like this we like this it's very easy to cut into and that's another thing about not using yeast it makes for a lot less dodgy though it's more of a crummy sort of texture because it even looks different than regular bread that gooey type of elasticated exactly I love this and the fact that the chili gives that kick and you know what hits you first what hits you first for me it was the mackerel alright and then it was the chili and that sitting on top of the avocado was great because you know avocado on its own it's very difficult to sort of take for the taste it's not really tasty and the bread just gives it the perfect consistency together and like I said I could have that quite easily and be very satisfied and I will probably be finishing that off after this great feedback great feedback no that was I mean it does look healthy it does look healthy it does look healthy and it's really beautiful lovely made glad you enjoyed it is there any way that you could use the same ingredients and try and jazz it up say like to make I don't know if you want to make you know for some people with the children mums with the children can they turn it into maybe design the bread into a bap or a bun or something like that the traditional way panini or besides I showed you but there's no point following rules here if you want to do it differently you're more than welcome it's not going to change the taste of the bread or the consistency if you want to shape it how you want and put some different designs in it put some smiley faces in it for the children why not I'm just amazed that you can actually make bread this quick this easy that seems really quick it's age old as well this isn't new cooking this is really old school but you're bringing it fresh and new making their homes yes it used to be done but now because of time constraints a lot of time we don't think we can cook from scratch most people don't want to buy a bread most people people should I say most people just want to grab a loaf a loaf as opposed to making bread I grew up on homemade bread and it doesn't take you know the bread in the shop doesn't taste like homemade bread so I'd encourage you guys to give it a try make bread once and you will never stop making bread when you come back right so we're coming we're almost running out of time but FEMA I want to leave the last with you in terms of food nutrition motivation and the whole you know dynamic energy that you bring well maybe I'll start with you we have to open ourselves a little bit more a lot of times we are you know setting our ways so let's try you know opening up ourselves to try new ingredients to try new ways of you know looking at food and actually tasting it because I mean especially with children in the stages even their taste buds change so even for us we should do the same and just because we've done something you know for many years before that we've done for a long time doesn't mean we cannot be open to it and actually increase in our health and awareness and have more exciting food in front of us inshallah inshallah thank you both so much thank you for having us up next thank you up next sister Masouma Jaffa with Ramadan etiquette prayer and dua oh that was an interesting recipe and with the short hours it certainly feels like we can want to eat all that food but honestly I think our stomachs get quite full but thank you so much brother Bilal it's an interesting recipe inshallah we will be making that at home right now we have continue with our Ramadan etiquette and I'd like to welcome sister Masouma as-salamu alaykum how are you alhamdulillah good inshallah thank you so much fine thank you so in terms of our discussion today we're going to be talking about the prayers and the merits of this whole benefit in this holy month and really we obviously have our daily wajib prayers that we perform every day how can we increase the benefits and really although we can do numerously there's many prayers that are recommended every night to do between Mark and Abishah what are the benefits of sort of increasing our our our namaz and salah that we do in the month so we have the Nawafil mm-hmm which you know you've got the the ones that are in between the salahs that you can recite and then obviously the the Nawafil for salat al-ail and then salat al-ail itself what that does we have in Hadith that the Nawafil actually compensate for the the if we haven't got the salat al-ail to the level it should be at the Nawafil will actually then come in and help bring it up and supplement it mm-hmm so it's really good to get into the habit of that important isn't it yeah that's your thing and even if we feel we can't do all of them at least you know sometimes I think people think that if they can't do all of them they shouldn't do any but again with some rather than nothing and also with the Nawafil you can actually give the kazaab it as well mm-hmm and you can do it you know while you're walking you know while you're sitting in the car as long as you know you're in Wazoo and then you can do it via Ishaar as much as you know it's even if you can't do it on the Masala because you don't have time you're at your desk in the office yeah looking at your screen of on the way to work I think it's really important to understand that this is the month where you up up your game right spiritually so you know you should be doing a lot more than you were so that when the month finishes and you start lessening it it doesn't lessen all the way back to what it was but it lessens so it's like a bell curve mm-hmm so you know you start off here and you sort of heighten it and go higher and higher and you reach so you're still better off than you were before the month so is it like looking at it like depositing into a bank account that you're just building up and there's so many blessings that are you know and they're multiplied in this month so that we can just gain and remove our you know sins ask for the repentance and then build up our bank account because we are going to obviously have our downfall in the year as we continued aren't we yeah for sure yeah I know that that's a beautiful way of looking at it so yeah I think it really works well and when you're saying about sort of doing some of the no off are you saying for instance the Zohar Asa ones are longer and more what if somebody couldn't fit the whole of them in could they start with two two regards how do you do something than nothing even if you think okay I'm not going to do the Zohar and Asa one maybe I'll just do the fudger right because we're probably going to be up to a fudger anyway so maybe just do the two rakhats before you know the azana fudger then do the fudger and then you know between Maghreb and Isha maybe you think okay you know what I'm really hungry I can't do four rakhats between Maghreb and Isha but I'll do the two rakhats sitting after Isha because that's only two rakhats so even if you're just doing some of them it's better than not doing any at all okay so is it better to start off with the ones that are associated with our wajah prayers rather than in saying the holy month where we've got I mean even you've got slathered you've got that's a regular one outside of this holy month but so for instance there's one that's you know two rakhats between your two prayers for instance is it better to sort of start on those or is it better to even if you can't do your regular noir fiddle ones in the year to start somewhere in this month which one would you recommend whatever works for you again I think the mustahab aqs are there for us to connect to as depending on our spirituality okay so there's lots of mustahab aqs it's not just salah there's lots of duwaz that you could be reciting the holy month and you could be reciting and they all have sort of equal merits or are they they all have an effect on our soul which brings us closer to Allah now depending on my soul will depend on what I connect to so and it's different it's not necessarily that I'll connect to this one thing and that's the only thing I'll connect to it'll be different on a different day so it's like sometimes I feel like pizza sometimes I'll feel like I don't know it's different it's the same sort of principle so for example if I pick up a duwaz to recite and I'm not connecting to it and I'm actually turning the pages to see when it's finishing then really I'm not getting anything out of that duwaz then I need to just close that duwaz but not stop doing the duwaz so if I've decided that I'm going to do a duwaz the duwaz would have taken me half an hour 10 minutes into the duwaz I realize I'm not connecting to this I stop the duwaz but then for the next 20 minutes I must have the last maybe I try reciting the Holy Quran and you know just connecting is what's important there's no point doing it if I'm not connecting but at the same time not using that as an excuse not to do it at all do something and let your soul because maybe that it's nurturing isn't it and it wants that input from the spirituality of rabada but you don't deny your soul that and you're allowing your soul to decide what it wants to connect to so in the nights of Qadr there's you know the hundred recommended you know I know when the nights were longer people would sit with their counters and you know there's some amazing people out there that you know can go through the whole night what's the best way to do that is it good to do those sort of you know Ibarra or because you're counting and you're saying I've done the hundred that's amazing or how would you do it as a tick box exercise just counting and just you know okay I'm doing it and that's it there's no point the other thing to remember as well is if I have Qadr on me although I can do a mustahab Salah even though I have Qadr on me it's not like fast if I have Qadr fast on me I can't do a mustahab fast I have to do the Qadr fast but with Salah I can do mustahab Salah it is still recommended to ensure that I pay the Qadr back first because that is a debt on me so for example instead of doing I could do a zohor because I have on myself right for example instead of doing the hundred rakhats I could do six days worth of Qadr Salahs so that would be what six times 17 which is 102 yeah so you know I'm not using my brain right now I'm going to count on your brain so you know what you're doing is sort of making sure that you're not only paying back your debt but you're doing it instead of doing the mustahab art so you're telling God I would have wanted to do this but because I have Qadr on me I'm doing that and in Salah then you would get the suave of both because God is all merciful and all loving so I think that's another thing to remember that you know make sure that you try to pay off the debts rather than doing extra but also when you're doing the extra to ensure that I'm actually doing it with presence of heart it's not just really build on there in this holy month so you know really feel their prayer and not just feel like oh gosh it's time to do my how would you say so I think it is easier to connect in this month anyway because there is you know the spirituality is higher in this month it's like when you go for Ziyara or Hajj you know it's much easier to connect yeah so it is easier anyway but the other thing I think we can be doing is maybe sort of rather than rushing into the prayer it's like you know I'd be cooking and then it's a lot of time and I'd just go and rush into the prayer just take a just a few seconds just to sort of collect your thoughts understand what you're going to do you know you're actually going to be standing in front of the creator of the whole universe that's huge start off with a dhan in a karma and say it loudly trying to get all your five senses involved in the prayer is really really important so maybe using you know another a fragrance of some kind if it's perfume whatever it is but keep that just for the Salah again what happens is your mind when it smells that fragrance it automatically goes into Salah mode yeah associates with the Salah exactly so you know so you're getting the sense of smell involved you know recite maybe just even a couple of lines of the Holy Quran so again you're getting your eyes involved you're looking at the Holy Quran you're looking at the Thorba so again you've got a focal point so you're getting your eyes involved say out loud so you're actually using your mouth to speak you're listening to the words the Holy words of Allah start with a dhan in a karma so again you're not just rushing into the Salah a lot of the times we go we pray we come out before we know we finish the prayer and we don't even realize that we weren't there so it's just you know an appointment to see the Queen we would really prepare and I know when we give that example people say yeah but you know if we met her five times a day every day then we wouldn't prepare so much but you too I think realizing who you're standing in front of this isn't just anybody this is the creator and also it's like so say we have a busy day and you know you've got so many distractions going on and sometimes I think you know the Zohar prayers are such a blessing to be able to step out of your crazy world chaos and then just say you know God it's just you and me and that's it and I don't want this you know the chaos that people bring because obviously mashallah you know whether you're children colleagues whatever it is it's noise noise noise and then the calmness just to have that calm and again I think you know just stop because we're constantly on the go on the go and you know there's so much input happening you know it is it's just that time where I'm just just relax just be there just be present and just talk to my creator and a lot of the time we're thinking about you know we've got to get back to this and we've got to do this but if we realize that if I get the creator on board that thing's going to happen and it's going to work and it's going to absolutely so it's going to concentrate on this it's going to sort that out it's fake it's been happening thank you so much we've come to an end again it just goes so quickly and you have so much to share and it's just so wonderful to be able to hear that and thank you so much once again thank you for having me and inshallah we will see you very soon so right now we have our adorable Abbas giving us the daily hadith Assalamu Alaikum my name is Abbas and I'm here to bring you the daily hadith from Ahle Beik today's hadith is about forgiveness in Ramadan the doors of non-forgiveness is closed and forgiveness is open that's why Allah forgives all of our bad stuff and sins and sometimes replace them with good stuff and doubles them this hadith about forgiveness is from the Holy Prophet peace be upon him and his family see you next time inshallah morning barakah Ramadan special Fik your question is answered peace be upon you peace be upon you peace be upon you peace be upon you welcome thank you thank you for having me what was your menu today then dhal tawad oh bless we love okay so we have another question it's from a young adult in the UK let's say peace be upon you in the month of Ramadan I missed a few of my fast but I don't remember the exact number of days how many days do you recommend me to fast and my other question is does taking an inhaler in the periods of fasting break your fast medically if necessary Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim according to the Grand March Say Sa'aalik Shahwazi may Allah prolong his life taking an inhaler does not break the fast you can take an inhaler it's not a problem for those provinces that they have asthma it's perfectly allowed it doesn't break your fast it's invalidated you may continue in terms of owing fast and you're not sure how many you owe aha it's a bit more tricky it is best I shouldn't say it is best because that means it's iffy but I will say according to you know the Maharaja and I've spoken to one of the scholars about this he says that the amount that you are short and certain of you fast that many days now if you think there's two numbers there's a lower and a higher as in I know I missed between 8 and 10 days I'm not sure if it's 8 I'm not sure if it's 10 but I can be certain it's between it's no it's one of the other it's one of the other then you do the minimum do the 8 do the 8 days and that should suffice okay what about for those people who were not born Muslim became barlic and then embraced Islam do they have to make up their fasts for being yeah the equivalent of you know I don't know when they were 50 do they have 35 years a man does he have 35 years of yes he does now jokingly when someone you know joins Islam you know he's purified and he's not it is not mandatory upon him to make up you know the akam of previous the prayers the fast that's not mandatory if the road were to do so you know there's no it's definitely because it shows a bit of sincerity and inshallah Allah will reward you but it's not mandatory upon him no and what about medication generally the rulings around so people obviously try to have it the whole time if they can last until the day once a day but what about other types that perhaps people aren't so aware of that could actually invalidate your fast I mean all medications will invalidate your fast in terms of tablets you're not allowed to take any tablets of such injections yes you are allowed to take injection for medicinal purposes that is allowed according to say not injecting water in your arm to hydrate yourself like this no no no not that but maybe you know if a diabetic wants to inject himself instantly he can keep the fast and inject himself that's okay according to say that's fine the only injection I think it's called enema that's not allowed that will invalidate the fast otherwise other injections are allowed and why would that invalidate the fast well it's on the terms of the water being able to go back into the stomach okay along those lines that's why it's not allowed very very interesting so people who for instance had fast to make up last year for instance and were meant to make it up in the year and never got because maybe due to health and then aren't able to fast this year on the health issue do they they have to have the cut off point do they what happens with their fast from last year do they continue them or they I mean we discussed this on another show on the enema scene so we discussed that if you aren't able to make up your what is owed to you what you owe so that's fine what do you do there are other things I mean there's this you know you can pay kefara kefara it's not really kefara it's a penalty this is more of an alternative or a substitute because you were you were ill it's not that you've got a penalty to pay it's more it differs there's a substitute as in you can fast again or you could feed 60 people you give a month which is about 750 grams I believe of rice or wheat or raisins or dates you can give something like that instead of fasting or you can open 60 people's fast and give them so there's there's substitutes for you to do instead of fasting so you can do them before the time runs out and if the time does run out then there is also another alternative there's there's the money you can give things like that however there's no need for you to take that to run out of time you've got one year from Ramadan to Ramadan it's plenty of time if you can't make it up just beforehand do the substitutes you know pay the I don't want to say kafara because not kafara not kafara pay the alternative or give some wheat or flour or raisins so speaking about kafara sorry but speaking about kafara what about people who they're Muslim by name but not by practice but then they get to understand their religion because many people are born to Muslim families the family didn't practice they don't really have an idea about Islam but they get somewhere on their own journey and then they switch on they switch on this is why so important Islam for our children we teach them the ahqab and we tell them about Ramadan and to be honest there are so many people who you know are not practicing but in Ramadan they start they keep the fast there's so many masha'a we have so many non hijabis that are fasting in Ramadan yeah you know that are Ramadan so to say that oh they weren't practicing or this and that it's not really it's not an excuse but it's very uncommon to see that at the same time non-imperial non-imperial you know some people that they come from a family that's not religious they brought up in that environment and they just didn't really know they knew there was a Muslim they had a Muslim name they got a Muslim heritage but they had no practice around them but then in their own journey they go to uni they meet up Muslims wherever they get somewhere in their life but they start to practice a religion then are those fast from when they became barlic on their neck do they have to make them up do they have to take what's their situation the situation is is that were they practicing Muslims did they accept Islam and were they you know were they practicing then they have to give you know then if they're neglecting you know fast on purpose which is haram then there's a kafara to pay for that let's do a jahil that's it just Muslim by name jahil wise by identity Allahu Akbar may God forgive them may God forgive them inshallah I mean I mean but they they would I believe so that they would have to make I need to check on that actually but I would believe that something would be incumbent on them it will be incumbent not just on them but there's you know like I said we were discussing this before in the Quran the order of fasting is upon every human being it's not just Muslims everyone the Quran addresses the people you know so it's like okay the Christians and the Jews and everyone has to like you know I think with it's interesting you know you were talking about you know ladies who don't observe hijab and even they all fast but it's surprising actually how many people find and perhaps not from the school about Hubeit as much as as much as the other schools that they Ramadan is Shahr Ramadan is their central point of their spirituality and that is what connects them to being a Muslim so whether they pray in the rest of the year they don't observe and they wear all sorts of clothes you know maybe that point of guidance and then we need to we need to help we need to help these people definitely I mean I would like to say that you know Allah will forgive them and inshallah I will but you know when we think about it you know it's like someone who's a Muslim but doesn't pray those Qadar prayers add up you know they do all those prayers yeah you do you know will Allah forgive you for them inshallah definitely that's why I'm a good person I don't hurt anybody I do I give charity I do this I do that and yeah okay I have it done my prayers still have to fast still have to pray this is there's no excuse I mean the only you know excuses for not fasting is you're ill you're travelling you're pregnant you've lost consciousness you lost sanity you know that's it really because you know we're living in a strange time now we're living in a strange world or you know compared to in past times and I don't know if people are losing their identity or you know some people are developing their own brand of Islam I mean I watched the TV show once where you know there was Muslims all together and everybody went to make salam one woman said well I don't really you know I tend to just go away for quiet meditation I'm not really into that I have my own connection with God so it's good you're not doing the Jama'at but I'm going to go and sit in another room that's excellent that's excellent there's nothing wrong with that we have Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you know and what was his what was his role would it tell us to go meditate in a room no no no he is the example he is who we copy who we aspire to become like he taught us and he taught through action so if Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did it we have to do it we don't know more than him exactly we don't know more than him we don't know better than him 100% although the person may be sincere in their connection to God they're still they're still prescribed regimented practices that we hear and we obey based on the Quran and not based on it definitely there's no excuse for missing the prayers and missing the fasts okay but having said that I mean I think there's a difference isn't there because you're what you're saying to and not to confuse it so for instance when people go to religious theahs or visitations I know amongst women I don't know about men but I've seen women they'll go in groups where they'll do you know certain theahs or do it together it's a group which is not obviously a recommended thing it helps them but then somebody who wants to do their own worship is absolutely allowed to do that it's you know indeed we're not saying we're not saying that don't do extra and don't have your own unique style when it comes to Martin we know that Pakistanis do it a little different from the Iranians we do it a little different from the Arabs we do it a little different from the Africans you know we have our own styles and we have our own identity and we have our own methods there's nothing wrong with that however there are certain things prescribed by Allah SWT which we have to do in accordance with Rasulullah and you can't choose something else as your alternative say for example when people do I don't I go and do Martin because that's my closeness you're just doing an alternative exactly and it's like if you go to Hajj there's certain things you have to do you can't make up your own Hajj and say well I'm not going to do Tawaf I'm just going to like stare at the camera stare at it or you know you can't do that it's an interesting one definitely so any other tips last before we finish okay first of all if you do miss your fast please write them down somewhere come a tally chart I've never got to forbid you have a tally better than forgetting even using a notebook in your phone just write them down somewhere if you can't complete them by the whole year there is an alternative there's a substitute that you can do so it doesn't mean that you have to fast you can pay money or something else like that for those who were in the state of Jahlia and well Muslim nearby may either forgive you but if you can try and pay back if not go see your local scholar or ambassador of your marja and organise something and get some sort of you know diagnosis and prescription of what to do in that situation for sure for sure and just finally in terms of when you want to feed people and you've got to make up fast who would you recommend would be the best source to give that to you good question I would like to say you know give it to whatever is easy so you know go to your local mosque and sponsor and if that but let's be honest there are people out there who need it more who are definitely needy yeah who are needy and need it more it doesn't have to be a Muslim just a needy person poor I mean skin is a skin but in terms of fasting it has to be Muslims okay in terms of fasting but in general for charity purposes it can be anybody I stand corrected thank you and sometimes even cheaper to go abroad and feed people abroad that should be the incentive should be to feed the people if it's cheaper and they're more needy you're killing two birds with one stone so yeah so you can basically just go to charity renown somebody you trust and somebody back home in your villages definitely with Pakistan Afghanistan, Iraq Africa absolutely and any third world country people are starving Muslims are starving definitely alright then thank you so much thank you for having me and I'm sure you have a blessed day I will do my best and please remember seeing your duos I will definitely remember your duos please remember me in your duos inshallah thank you so much that's all we've got time for and wish our viewers a blessed day too keep us in your duos


Welcome to this session of the Amazon EC2 15th birthday event. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I'm joined by Elaine Harvey, the director and technical advisor at AWS. Elaine, welcome to the program. It's great to see you. Thank you, Lisa. I'm really glad to be here. So here we are celebrating EC2's 15th birthday, probably back in the day. So many customers in many industries couldn't imagine how they would be using the service. Talk to me about how long you've been involved in EC2 and some of the growth and the maturation of the service that you've seen. Yeah, I mean, I joined EC2 about eight years ago and it was big then, but much smaller than it is now. And it's grown in so many directions, both in the scale, the instances that we offer, as well as the types of instances, the various types of hardware effectively that we offer for customers to support their workload. It's just grown in so many dimensions. It's really exciting. I see here, 80 availability zones, 25 regions, local zones in Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, and nine new local zones coming just this year. Yeah, yep. Talk to me a little bit about that. Yeah, yeah. So I really, what we are trying to do is get compute where customers need it. So we've already had these presences around the world and with this expansion, we're trying to bring the EC2 offering to customers with much lower latency. And that's why we're doing local zones, regions, availability zones in so many places as so customers can have that compute with low latency to help them interact with their customers. I know since its inception, AWS has always been so customer centric. It's always day one there, but prior to joining AWS, as you said, eight years ago, you were involved in a number of startups. One of the things that we consistently hear is how instrumental EC2 has been in reinventing the startup space. What can you tell me about that involvement that it's had? Yeah, I mean, the great thing was is I was an EC2 customer before I worked at EC2. So I had been in the startup community for almost 25 years before joining Amazon. And I had been through that life cycle of a startup where you begin, you need some capacity, you need some computers to run your stuff on, and eventually you reach a size and you have to go figure out all the hard work. Where am I going to put them? Do I need a data center? What kind of network connectivity do I need? And not only that, you have to invest a lot of money, which startups very rarely have in the early days into buying the equipment you need just so you could run your business, do the thing you're really trying to do for your customer. EC2 was a game changer. So I started using EC2 at one of the startups I was at before coming here. Actually I had two prior startups before coming to EC2. And the ability to just get capacity when you needed it. You didn't have to go buy computers. You didn't have to have data center contracts. You just said, I need a hundred of these. And suddenly you had a hundred of the instance you were asking for completely game changing, especially for a startup where you just don't have that capital to invest. And frankly, you don't want to spend your time dealing with data centers. When that's not your business, your business is to serve your customers. Right, and I can't imagine the last year and a half we've seen such acceleration of digital business transformation. How startups and enterprises alike would have fared without having the ability to quickly turn on services like EC2 in this time? Yeah, it was just amazing. During COVID times, we definitely saw that rush of everybody trying to go online. Companies that had been already starting down that path going online, scaling more. And suddenly it went from zero to a hundred in March. And everybody had to go online. And it was super exciting to be part of EC2 and be able to enable everybody in the world to do that. Well, incredible amount of acceleration, but also maturation and growth in the whole portfolio of AWS. We've talked about that a number of times on theCUBE in the last six or eight months or so. You mentioned nine new availability zones coming in 2021. You've been involved in the regional and the local zone buildouts. Talk to me about how these regional zones, these availability zones are helping enterprises to run their businesses and applications worldwide with the high availability that their customers are demanding. Yeah, yeah. So there's the both the location aspect. So we do need to be worldwide because our customers are worldwide. So we need to be where they need to be. And so that's how we think about the growth of our regions and availability zones and now local zones with lower latency to end customers. There's another aspect to availability zones and regions that is super important for our customers availability. Foundationally, we treat those as fault zones. So they're fault boundaries beyond which customers will not experience faults. So for example, you will not, the fundamental way that we think about designing our services isolates faults between regions and between availability zones and customers can use that in their designs such that they'll have a multi AZ behavior and we contain faults along those boundaries. So they can design with that in mind and their applications can be fault tolerant relying on those foundational fault domains effectively. That's even becoming more and more important as consumers become more and more demanding that services are just available and you can get anything with the click of a link on your phone that high availability is really no longer a nice to have what EC2 is delivering its table stakes for an organization I can imagine in any industry. Absolutely, absolutely. Our customers totally rely on that so that they can serve their customers consistently and reliably. So tremendous amount of growth Elaine in the first 15 years, you said you've been with EC2 on this side now working for it for eight years but had a lot of experience with it before and when it was probably in its infancy as a startup customer, what are some of the things that excite you most about the direction in which EC2 is going? Yeah, I think we are steadily providing more and more flexibility to our customers. So we're providing them with new instance types to suit their particular workloads. So we're getting more into a variety of offerings that customers can use to achieve the outcomes they want. That's exciting. I think probably the thing that excites me the most though is the work we're doing around custom silicone. So our Graviton, Inferentia, Tranium chips where we are building custom silicone for a number of reasons. A big factor of that is we are giving our customers the ability to have a much better ROI on compute to cost for their workloads. So we're trying to make it more and more cost efficient for our customers to do what they want. The thing that really excites me about it though, the secret thing that excites me about it is not very well known but Graviton is not only cost to compute higher efficiency but it also power to compute higher efficiency. So it's a greener option. So if a customer for a given workload wanted to reduce their carbon footprint they can move to Graviton and it consumes substantially less power for the same workload. And that makes me really excited. That is exciting and something that I think everybody can wrap their heads around. I was reading something about EC2 and Graviton paving the way for another important initiative and that's telecommunications. Some of the big news, the dish networks coming out saying we're going to be building our 5G core network on AWS. A lot of work going on there in telecommunications. Yeah, yeah, that's very exciting. And in line with our overall strategy to get much closer to the end customers again, to reduce that latency whether those customers are on a 5G network or on the internet. We want the ability for our customers to be able to provide compute and their applications wherever their customers are. Well, Elaine, thank you so much for joining me on the EC2 15th birthday event. A lot of innovation has gone on in the first 15 years. We know what you're excited about and I'm sure can't even imagine what the next five, 10 or 15 years will hold for EC2, its services and the customers that it delights. We thank you for joining us today. Thanks so much, Lisa. For Elaine Harvey, I'm Lisa Martin. Thanks for watching today's session.


So, let's talk about this article from The Nation, which I find absolutely fascinating. So it's written by an ex-Clinton staffer who was formerly a Hillary Clinton loyalist, but is now saying I've changed my mind about Bernie Sanders, I've had a change of heart, and I think that Democrats should not try to hobble his campaign. And the individual, as you all know who I am referring to, is Peter Dow. Now it's interesting because just a couple of years ago, him and I were on opposite sides of the Democratic Party Civil War. We exchanged insults on Twitter, not necessarily insults, but we argued with each other on Twitter briefly. And a lot of people kind of looked to him as the quintessential Hillary Clinton supporter, who basically, in my view, propped up Hillary Clinton and put her on this God level where she was above criticism and any and all criticism of her was just completely unacceptable. But now, over the last year or so, you've seen this measurable shift in his tone. And you notice that he's kind of had this political awakening, and in real time you see him going through this evolution where he realizes that really re-litigating 2016 isn't the best way to defeat Republicans, and correctly so he realizes, look, if Democrats are going to try to take shots at Bernie Sanders and bring him down, they're just helping the GOP. Now with that being said, do I think that he's saying Bernie should now be above criticism? No, because I've been critical of Bernie Sanders myself, but basically I think what he's really speaking to in this article is this concerted effort of these private dinners, these what to do about Bernie meetings between Chuck Schumer, Pete Buttigieg and Nancy Pelosi to figure out how to defeat Bernie Sanders. But what he essentially says in this article is if we're doing that, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. And I want to read parts of this article to you because it's fascinating. So the article is titled, I was Bernie's biggest critic in 2016. I've changed my mind. Bernie Sanders can beat Donald Trump. And it would be an epic act of self-destruction for Democrats to try and hobble his campaign. And he writes, if you had told me in the spring of 2016 that three years later, I'd be touting the merits of the Bernie Sanders campaign, taking flak from Hillary Clinton's supporters for not being loyal enough to her, I would have laughed and asked what alternate reality you lived in. But life and politics have a way of taking unexpected turns. And here I am writing about the considerable strengths Sanders brings to the 2020 election. I do so not to endorse Sanders or to minimize the large and diverse democratic field. It is early in the primary and voters should take the time to assess all their options. I am going through that process myself, studying how the candidates campaign, how they deal with the corporate media, what policies they're putting forward. The reason I focused on Sanders in recent weeks is because I am concerned that festering anger from the 2016 primary is causing a rift in the electorate that Trump and the Republican Party can and will successfully exploit. Bernie Sanders is unquestionably in the top tier of candidates for the Democratic nomination. And it would be an epic act of self-destruction for Democrats to plunge into an internecine conflict over his candidacy at a time when they need to marshal every asset to defeat Donald Trump and his GOP cronies. I am calling on Democrats, progressives and leftists to hit the pause button, to table our disagreements no matter how intense as we fight to preserve the rule of law and the last semblance of our democracy. We owe it to ourselves and our country. My political and personal evolution since 2016 has caught some people off guard. I'm often asked how a staunch Clinton advocate and former Sanders critic could reverse course. The answer is simpler than it appears. I spent 15 years before the 2016 election as a progressive activist, a critic of the Democratic Party's meekness in the face of GOP extremism and a supporter of the policies Bernie Sanders promotes. After months of self-reflection about my own role in the 2016 primary, I realized I was among the far too many Clinton and Sanders supporters who got caught up in an ugly family dispute that spiraled out of control. We've all experienced those explosive fights. By the heat of the moment, we see each other as enemies, rather than human beings who largely share the same goals, so I began to reach out to repair what had been broken. On Twitter, I unblocked Sanders supporters who I had argued with. I tried to see things from their perspective and I asked them to do the same. There's still some residual anger and skepticism, but the healing process has given me invaluable perspective and I can now look at the 2020 primary through a clear lens. Virtually every state and national poll shows Sanders at or near the top of the Democratic field. Polls are fluid at this stage, but Sanders is a known quantity and his base of supporters is solid. His proven appeal to young voters and independents is a powerful asset and his ability to deliver a well-crafted and unapologetic progressive message to Americans across the political spectrum is crucial if Democrats hope to take on an increasingly extremist GOP. Alarmingly, the ferocity of the GOP's attack on our norms and values is met with timidity from the Democratic Party leadership. Even after grassroots activists and voters generated a 2018 blue wave that swept Democrats back into power, in the House, the Party leadership has proven incapable or unwilling to rise to the historic challenge of facing down and crouching fascism. There are no saviors coming to rescue us. We must become our own leaders to defeat Trump and to reverse the rising tide of white nationalism that threatens the foundation of our democracy. We must have the courage to set aside old grievances for the greater good. Bernie Sanders is not the only candidate who can defeat Trump, but he's certainly one of them and he should not be treated as the enemy. Wow. So, just take a moment to reflect on this. These words were written by Peter Dow. Look, people can change. Now, if you look at any of his recent tweets, now he's being relentlessly criticized by Hillary Clinton supporters. So there's this question of, you know, is this a genuine evolution? Is this just to promote a book? And personally, I actually do believe that this is a genuine evolution because if you wanted to basically reverse course right now specifically to promote a book, you're kind of doing a bad job at promoting your own book because imagine if I suddenly flipped and became a Hillary Clinton supporter or worse, let's say I flipped and became a Trump supporter and then I said, hey, Bernie supporters, who've tuned in for years now by my book.  You'd say, Mike, you're crazy. So I mean, if this was a career move, it would be a really poor career move. Now you can still make the case that, you know, he's doing this to garner attention for his book, whatever. But is it likely that, you know, this was a genuine evolution? I think so because people are capable of changing. Since 2016, I myself have gone through numerous political evolutions and I tried to stop being so defensive in the face of criticism and tried to be more introspective because I realized that if I were going to be one of the people criticizing the Democratic Party for a lack of self-awareness, then I also needed to practice what I preached. So I started to kind of do some self-reflecting. I started to read more books and I've kind of gone through my own, I guess, mini evolution. It's not a substantial one, but the changes that I've essentially gone through is now I'm more sharper in my criticism of capitalism specifically. I think I name and shame white supremacy more because I don't think I've spoken out as forcefully against that.  We can talk about that for hours and I think that in the event, Peter Dowell and I had a conversation about 2016, it would be an explosive argument. But if we just put that aside and talk about the policies that we presumably agree on based on the indications we got in this article and how to defeat Republicans, I think there would be a lot of agreement. And I think that this article, it really communicates that people on the other side are willing to partake in a healing process. And he's very careful here to not say, Democrats, let's come together. I think there's this message of inclusivity, progressives, leftists, because a lot of people don't identify with the Democratic Party. I left the Democratic Party in 2016 and I only re-registered reluctantly recently so I can vote for Bernie in 2020. Now the reason why I re-registered so far in advance was because I worry about any shenanigans that might come up, that might prevent me from registering ahead of time. But for the most part, I still don't identify with the Democratic Party. So I think that just collectively people on the left do need to realize that there should be this olive branch that we extend to one another. Now I, in saying that, acknowledge that I'm not willing to sacrifice any of my principles. I am still on the left and I'm not going to yield an inch, but in terms of trying to have an open mind and welcome people who I formally disagreed with, do I think that we should engage with those people? I do, because if we want to win, we've got to build a broad coalition.  You were a Hillary Clinton surrogate, you know, not an official surrogate, but you certainly were one of her loudest boosters.  I don't want to hear from you. And I don't think that's the best way to go about doing politics. I mean, the goal is to broaden your coalition. So if people genuinely want to change and reflect, then we need to welcome that. And I actually tried to foster a dialogue with someone on Twitter who was a supporter of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but hates Bernie Sanders. To me, this is perplexing because, ideologically, they are the same. AOC maybe slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders on some issues, but I mean, by and large, it's inconceivable to me that someone can support AOC, but not Bernie Sanders. So I tried to engage in dialogue and this person, you know, in good faith told me the reasons why they don't support Bernie Sanders, but they support AOC. It had to do with race and how they don't think that he speaks to the issue of race relations good enough. And even if I disagreed with their assessment, I do think that what kernel of truth I was able to take away from that person and from that exchange, it was helpful because we have to tailor our message to broadcast it outside of our own progressive echo chamber, because we can talk all day long to each other in mainstream media or in in indie media about how bad the mainstream media is and about how our progressive message is the best. But we've got to try to find a way to market it in a way that will reach people outside of our own bubble. And I think that that's kind of what Peter Dow is doing here. And look, credit where it's due. If you look at what he's been saying on Twitter lately, he's been getting attacked for speaking the truth and saying things that we've been saying. So I absolutely welcome this evolution here. And you know, shout out to him for doing this because if he had this genuine like self discovery and introspective process, it's very hard to fight past your own cognitive dissonance. And it's very difficult to speak out about them and vocalize, you know, this change because you're afraid about how people are going to respond. There have been many times in my life where I've gone through these many evolutions myself, some of them monstrous evolutions. And I was very worried about, you know, me vocalizing my change because you don't know how that's going to come across.  And then when I started to tell my family that I was atheist, you know, I was worried about that.   And the homophobia that I was projecting was to hide my insecurity about my own sexuality. So I know firsthand that it's very difficult to basically reverse course and especially in such a short time for someone to vocalize their change like this, you know, you've got to give them credit where it's due. It's, I think it's bold. And if people want to change, if people want to join our team and come to our side or at least form an alliance or a ceasefire to team up and take on Donald Trump, that's fine. So, you know, this is certainly a fascinating article. I'm glad he wrote this article because I was genuinely curious. Like we all kind of joke about the newly woke Peter Dow. But I think that to get this insight is very interesting. So, you know, credit words do Peter Dow. My respect for him went up substantially because of this to be able to vocalize your changes, even if you know it's going to lead to criticism from your former allies. You know, it's a bold move. So, you know, I respect him for this.


Hi and welcome to the session. Let us discuss the following question which says in figure O is the center of a circle, the area of sector OAPB is 5 by 18 of the area of the circle find X. Before moving on to the solution let's see the key idea that we will use for this question area of a circle is given by pi r square where r is the radius of the circle and area of sector of angle theta is equal to theta upon 360 into pi r square here r is the radius of the circle. Now let's move on to the solution. First of all let us see what we are given in the question. We are given that area of sector OAPB is 5 by 18 of the area of the circle. So we have area of sector OAPB is equal to 5 by 18 into area of circle and we need to find the value of X. So first of all let us assume that radius of the given circle be r. Let us denote it as 1. So 1 implies area of the sector OAPB which will be given by X upon 360 into pi r square as here theta is given by X and radius is r is equal to 5 by 18 into area of the circle that is pi r square. So this implies X is equal to 5 by 18 into pi r square into 360 upon pi r square and this will be equal to 100. So the value of X will be 100 degrees thus X equal to 100 degrees is the required answer. With this we finished this session. Hope you must have enjoyed it. Goodbye, take care and have a nice day.


Okay, are you recording all right? I'm chained danger. This is give to Gustavus day I'm gonna do some socially distanced chats with folks working here at the courier cafe so So what's your name? I'm Cara Gardner I'm Mia leverage. This is great and You're both working here. How long have you been working here at the courier cafe? Yeah, I've been working here since my freshman year my first semester. So about a year now, okay Me as well. I've been doing that. So yeah, okay. This is great. And what is Different and what is the same other than this force field? This is you like the barrier doesn't make it so when people are like furious and they're like you Put two shots in my Machiano and they throw it. You're like, you can't get me Yeah, that's pretty much my favorite part of having this also just like being safe and everything Oh, yeah Yeah, just the differences like mass and we take we can't take the cups anymore So we want to bring your own cup mug thing. We can't do that But otherwise it's pretty much the same which is really nice because I love the community is that we have with People coming in and also people that come in every day. It's really nice to see them all again is Coffee demand what it always is No, no, are people like getting off of caffeine. Is this a trend should I be doing this? I think so, okay Not today. I need all the caffeine I can get today. So this is good So you all are relatively there be happy and well and safe and yeah, all right If you were to try and just help me do my job and tell people why they should give to the status, what would you say? Well, first of all, I would say that I just love it here I'm so glad that we were back on campus and seeing all of my friends again has been so much fun And I think people should get to get status because this is like I don't know just making it the college what it is helps a lot and We're just thankful for everyone who gives and makes the college experience on campus and everything that makes it fun It was yeah, I love it. That's good. And if you give $20,000 you will personally make them a Machiata with two shots in it. Yes, you can take my word for it I'll make it with three shots. This is a good deal. All right. Thank you both so much. This is fabulous Okay, everybody, you heard them the next donor who gets $20,000 will get a three shot Machiato. All right, go give now