Burning Sins and Suckas

I Burn Sins and Suckas

[00:00:00] The very first season of Ayana Explains It All, I did a special Two hour, I think it was two hour episode on Ramadan just before the month started. And I broke it all the way down like the semantics of the word Ramadan. And I talked about all of the traditions and the importance of it. And I felt so proud of that episode that I reposted it in the second season of Ayana explains it all.

This third season of Ayana explains it all. Oh, you all are going to get some fresh news.

I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it. Hey everybody, welcome back for another episode of Ayanna [00:01:00] Explains It All. I know two episodes, two weeks in a row. I can't believe it. Ayanna Explains It All is the podcast that bridges the gap between the current events in human behavior and It is available at the show's website at www.

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You can use Spotify, which is our flagship. You can use Apple podcast. You can use I heart radio. You can use Amazon music. You can use good pods, shout out to good pods for featuring a list that I did this week on my podcast Uh, on their socials anyway, share the podcast with friends and family. Let people know that there is this Muslim lady out there who's talking crazy and you want to know. If you, if they agree with me or not. No, I'm serious. People need to hear what I have to say. And yes, I do have a unique [00:03:00] voice. Somebody asked me if my podcast was about being Muslim, if it was about Islam and I told them, no, I am a Muslim black Muslim woman, black Muslim lady lawyer.

And I host a podcast. I produce the podcast. I write everything for the podcast. I do all the work for the podcast. I will have occasionally some people help me flesh out ideas and I thank them in every episode. But this podcast is not about Islam. It's not an Islamic podcast. It's a show hosted by a Muslim woman.

I'm Muslim and I've been Muslim my, my entire life, but I occasionally talk about religion on this podcast, right? If you've been here from the beginning, you know, that I occasionally talk about religion because It's very important to me, but there are other things that I like to talk about too, like politics and technology and the environment and relationships and personal growth and health and, and mental health.

Those things [00:04:00] are also important to me. So I cover a bunch of different things that will apply to all people. And sometimes it'll apply to just a subsection of people, just a subculture of the larger group. So, but today's episode of Ayana explains it all. It's actually a special episode listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. Ramadan started last. It's not last week yet. I'm recording this on Friday, March 15th, but it's been some days. It has not been a full week of Ramadan yet, but it's been some days and, and we've, we've learned some things in these few days and it's time to talk about it.

It's time to talk about it. It's, it's, it's time to talk about some of the things that I have observed. Some of the things I've heard, uh, things that I've been doing myself. things that I've seen other people doing. And, uh, I haven't, I've had one full day of fasting so far, [00:05:00] one full day out of all of these days, because, you know, there are times when, uh, women are exempt from fasting and I'll let you use your imagination because you don't need to know all of my business.

 I wanted to come on here and just not just explain what Ramadan is because that's pretty, it's not self explanatory, but I wanted to dive deeper into the purpose of Ramadan. I know that when non Muslims think about Ramadan, what comes to mind for them first is the no eating.

That's all they know is no eating. So a lot of people still assume that we can have water to drink. We cannot have water.

And this is from just before sunup, just before the Adhan is called for the, morning prayer, is when we stop eating. You can eat again at sundown. And you could probably, if you wanted to, eat from sundown until right before. [00:06:00] The, uh, the Adhan is called. You would be very full and you might not feel well, but you can eat up into that point. So it's just before sunup, just before the Adhan is called for Fajr prayer. That's the morning prayer. That's when you're eating stops, but it's not just eating that stops at that moment.

There are a lot of different, you kind of feel like you jump into another body because your, your body and your mind are completely transformed in that moment. For the, for, you know, however many hours is it, it's not even 12 hours. It's more like 10, nine, nine, 10 hours where you get to do all the things that you couldn't do while you were fasting.

And then suddenly you have to unzip that person, unzip that suit. Climb it to another suit where you are not doing any of those things. You're not thinking about those things. You're focusing on your fast. You're focusing on the task and [00:07:00] that is to make it until sundown. Fasting is sun up. It's fasting day is sundown to sundown.

So it starts at sundown. On the day of the sighting of the new moon at sundown, and then it goes to the next sundown, to the next sundown. This is how days are done in the Islamic calendar. It's from Maghrib to Maghrib. Maghrib is the night prayer. And the days go from Maghrib to Maghrib. So Ramadan starts at Maghrib.

Ramadan ends at Maghrib on the last day of fasting. So for that time, you're, you're And you're another person. And after I would say about a week or so, a lot of people start to feel like this is naturally who I want to be and naturally who I am. And it doesn't feel like you're taking off a one suit and putting on another, it just feels natural.

You know, it does take some time to get adjusted to changes and the changes that come with [00:08:00] having to fast and having to observe Ramadan are drastic. So there is some adjustment that your body makes. You might initially lose a bunch of water weight and eventually your body will start to see, Oh, okay, we're, we're going to get food when the sun goes down.

And so we're going to, you know, let go of some of this fat, your body holds onto fat. When you, when you go into starvation mode, your body holds on to fat initially because it wants to keep you alive and it doesn't know when it's going to get another meal. So it holds on to the fat that you have stored.

And a lot of us got a lot of fat stored, honey, myself included child. So your body is adjusting. Your gut is adjusting. Your brain adjusts your emotions. Your emotions, because, you know, we get attached because it's all of these months, of course, you get attached to your job, your children, your partner, your social activities, you get attached to your hobbies, you are attached to all of these things.[00:09:00]

And you might have to cut back on a lot of these interactions, you're attached to school, if you're in college or high school, whatever you're attached to all of that to studying things. because you are increasing your acts of worship. You're increasing your time spent in praying, remembering Allah, uh, doing good acts.

You're increasing all of these things and some people look at you and go, wow, you're so you turn into super Muslim when you're, uh, during Ramadan. And I mean, yeah, we become extra during Ramadan because we're supposed to. Ramadan is the month where the reward for doing good is multiplied. The reward for, you know, giving someone money, uh, to buy a meal to break their fast is multiplied.

The re the forgiveness from Allah is multiplied. It's wide open. You know, Allah expands, [00:10:00] Allah expands to, um, forgive us to provide for us. And during Ramadan, Ramadan. that time that is when he is most expanded for us. And so we take advantage of it. We are encouraged to take advantage of it. We are compelled to take advantage of it because you're essentially stripped down to the bare minimum when you're fasting.

And all you can think about is God, please help me. Just let me get to when I can have water again, when I can have food again. And it's okay, you're human. You're a human being, your body wants these things, especially if just the day before you were eating and living it up and everything was good. And you were, you know, it's hard, especially if you, you get sick or you have a day where you're exempt from fasting and you suddenly get to eat that day during the day. It's the adjustment is a short period of adjustment. It's, it's a short period of adjustment. [00:11:00] Um, it used to take me a while to get used to it because I, I, I didn't know that.

I didn't really understand. I, and I talk to people about this a lot about how Muslims get caught up in the rituals of Islam and yes, fasting is a ritual and, but, and it's something that you do from, childhood, many of us, and some of us are adults doing it for the first time, wearing hijab is a ritual.

Going to the mosque, it is a ritual. Prayer even is a ritual. These are things that we do, but sometimes we forget why we're doing All of these things, like it becomes one of those, it becomes forced. We feel like we're being forced and we forget why we're doing it. So it's easy for us to stop doing it. But all of the things that we're doing, even marriage, even marriage, all of these things that we're doing is to get closer to Allah, all of everything, our journey, [00:12:00] our journey.

The whole path of our lives from our birth to our death is to get to Allah, everything that we do. This is why we're careful in business and in school and relationships and in friendships and interactions with neighbors. And this is why we're careful because we're not. We want to do everything that's going to get us closer to Allah and nothing that's going to take us out of the fold.

Nothing that's going to, um, I don't want to say anger him, but nothing that's going to move us far away from him. Because once you move far away, once you forget about him, he forgets about you. When you were, when you remember him, he remembers you. And how do you remember him through prayer, through supplication, but it's easy when you don't understand the purpose of all of these things to stop doing them.

It's easy to fall [00:13:00] back, fall away, fall down. But you get back up and you get back on the horse as they say, and you do it again, like Ramadan is the time when a lot of people who have not been practicing well throughout the year, come back to practicing. You'll see these people at the masjid when you haven't seen them all year.

And. We used to joke back in the day, Oh, Ramadan, Muslims, Ramadan, Muslims, look at them. They only show up during Ramadan. You know, everybody's good during Ramadan, but it's not funny because it's important. It's important for people to show up during the most important month of the year. It's important that people see.

that they can do these hard things. We think all of these things are hard, you know, praying five times a day. You have to wake up for prayer when you want to be sleep. Um, refraining from doing this, don't eat pork, don't do this, don't do that. We see all of these things and they sometimes feel [00:14:00] hard or for some of us, they're just really easy because we've been doing them for years.

And we, but we feel like we're met with all these challenges. And during Ramadan, we see, yeah, I can do this. I can do this. What was I thinking this whole year? I can, you know, I can cover, I can do this. I can pray. I can, I can do this. You're able to see that you can do it because a lot of the distractions in your life are removed and you're stripped down to the bare.

You know, all you have is, For you to sit and worship and remember Allah and think about your place in the world and your path and what goals you have for the future and how you want to proceed in your Ramadan and how you want to be a better Muslim and how you want to give more in charity. You're able to think about your religious goals.

Your mind is clear again because the distractions are taken away. Your mind is clearer rather because the distractions are taken away. Food is a distraction. There are people whose lives [00:15:00] literally revolve around eating and it's because they are either addicted to food or They just, that's just how they are, you know, everybody revolves their plans, their day around when they are going to eat breakfast, when they eat lunch and when they're going to eat dinner.

So removing that you suddenly, it frees up a lot of time. It frees up a lot of time. It gives you time to sit and think about right now. I would be eating lunch. What can I do instead of eat? And it used to be for me, I would go for walks or I would take a nap or, you know, you pray or you read the Quran.

That's, that's another thing. Reading the Quran during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is when the Quran was revealed, was first revealed. That first verse of the Quran was during Ramadan. And so Muslims take to reading the Quran if they are able to. I know the Quran has been [00:16:00] translated into so many different languages.

We. Inshallah are able to read the entire thing. It's broken down into 30 sections. And so it's like one section a day for those 30 days. And Inshallah, we're able to get through it because again, you have time, you have time. There's, there's really no excuse anymore because you even can listen to it.

If you don't have time to read it because maybe you're, I don't know, you're not in a place where you're able to have your Quran out and reading. You can listen to it. I've been listening to the same recitation, same reciter and translator since I was a little kid, like this one. I just, I love it's it's old, it's like from the, it's from, I think it's from the seventies. Honestly, it might be from the seventies. But, so you're able to listen to it. If you can't read your Quran, it's better to pick up the Quran and read it.

It's better to read it in Arabic. But if you can't, you read it in English and if you can't read the [00:17:00] book, you can listen to it. There's no excuse except that maybe you don't want to do it and that's up to you. Everything is up to you because I've, I've said this many times before, there is no compulsion in religion.

You are not compelled. You either do it or you don't do it. You know the reward for doing it. You know that there's no reward for not doing it. You know that there's maybe punishment for doing the opposite of it. And so you weigh the pros and cons and you decide, well, okay, you decide what you can handle.

And at every point in the Muslims, in a Muslim's life, every point, everybody gets to a point where they feel Their, their practice of the religion is, is weak. The Iman is faith. And that faith is in Allah, belief in the oneness of Allah and his books and his angels.

So it's not that your Iman is weak. It's your practicing of the religion is weak because at the end of the day, you still believe in the oneness of Allah, but it's all of these other [00:18:00] things. You're just like, Oh, I can't, my head can't get into it. And you might be struggling mentally, emotionally.

It may be hard for you, so you show yourself grace and you don't beat yourself up because at the end of the day, what you really have to have is that first pillar, Iman. If you lose your Iman, that's it. That's it for Muslims. That's it. So even if all of these other things fall away, if you still have your belief in Allah, you're on the right track.

There are people who think, and they're made to feel this way because religious pressure is a son of a bitch from the community, from your family. There are people who are made to feel like, well, if I don't cover, then I'm not Muslim. If I don't, pray the five daily prayers on time, then I'm not Muslim.

If I don't go to the masjid every Friday, then I'm not Muslim. If I don't fast, then I'm not Muslim. Allah makes Muslims, Allah makes [00:19:00] Muslims. And it could be that you are at a time in your life mentally, emotionally, and you're really struggling. And what you need is people to show you grace, be empathetic and help you. And instead of being encouraged and helped along on their journey, because remember, this is your journey. Your journey is going to be smooth in parts.

It's going to be easy in parts and it's going to be hard in parts and bumpy in parts. And even when it's easy, you don't rest on your laurels and go, look, I've done all the things today. Yay. I, I'm going to get something good at the end of this. And then tomorrow something happens and you can't do any of the things.

Are you then going to go, Oh, well, I guess that's it. Then I'm going to hell. No, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that. And we really need to move away from telling people they're going to burn in hell because they made a [00:20:00] mistake or they did something wrong or they sinned. We need, we need to stop telling people that people need to understand why all of the things that we do in the practice are important because they get us closer to Allah. Praying to Allah gets us closer to Allah.

Acts of charity get us closer to Allah. Fasting gets us closer to Allah. Performing in the Hajj gets us closer to Allah. When you get married, it's because you want to get closer to Allah. You want to, at the end of it all, at the end of it all, when it's all said and done, you want to meet Allah. During Ramadan, we increase our charitable giving. We increase it because giving in Zakat, yes, is one of the pillars of Islam, but the reward for it.

We're, we are reward hungry, honey, and Ramadan, we just lap those things up, inshallah. I hope that everybody is taking advantage [00:21:00] of the double and triple rewards, the double and triple coupons

provided during Ramadan. But it's also important to remember that there are people who cannot fast. And so it's incumbent upon the people who can fast, the people who have the money to be able to give something to give something like what's happening in Gaza with the Palestinians. There's such a need for everything.

There are people who are trying to you. flee Gaza and they need money, they need help, they need to, you know, when they get to their next destination, they need to be set up with resources, housing and clothing and again, food and they need, you know, to be able to pay for transportation. Now is the time to give. Now is the time to give to these people.

 One of, one of the things I love to do because when I have days to make up, sometimes instead of [00:22:00] making up the day, because you are allowed to do this, you can provide food or money for food for someone who is fasting to break their fast.

 I would love for everybody to have everything and I would love for people to not suffer and I would love for nothing bad to ever happen, but I know in the life of this world that it, it is supposed to happen, that there is to be suffering and there is to be, you know, setbacks and losses and things.

And this is just the life of this world and we can't, you know, we can't wish it away. We can't spend it away. I mean, there are people who have billions, they could actually spend it away, but it's not going to happen. So we have to give where we can, we have to do what we can. And all of us, we all do our best.

I hope, Inshallah. I know my people, they all do their best. All do their best. They all do their absolute best. We, it's not like we're on our best behavior during Ramadan. It's like, no, we are striving. We are toiling. We are trying. [00:23:00] We are begging Allah to forgive us for our sins because asking for forgiveness during Ramadan, it's like the doors of forgiveness, Allah expands to forgive.

You of your sins. And so you appeal to him night after night, after night, you pray, taught her. We taught her. We is the congregational prayer during Ramadan. And it's 20 rakats to a piece in a rakats is, you know, the different positions from the start to when you're on the floor making Salat. And you do this and you ask a lot of forgive you, you ask a lot of turn your sins into good deeds.

And it is because Ramadan, the word itself means to burn and Ramadan is the month where you are burning your sins. You're burning your sins. And how do you do that? You do that through acts of worship. You do that through fasting. You threw that. You do that through asking for forgiveness. People tend to think that Ramadan is separated into three parts, uh, kindness, mercy, [00:24:00] and forgiveness and that these 10 days are for kindness and these 10 days are for mercy and these are for, uh, forgiven.

No, it's all for kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. You appeal to Allah for kindness, mercy, forgiveness, forgiveness. guidance for guidance. Every time we pray, we ask Allah for guidance multiple times, multiple times. When we say Al Fatiha during our prayer, we're asking Allah to guide us on the straight path, guide us on the straight path, not the path of those who have gone astray.

 Ramadan is the time that to maximize your, your acts of worship. And I've had this, I don't, I don't know how I even got into this conversation, but, um, Oh yes, I did yesterday. There was someone on, on X Twitter. And he posted, he reposted, uh, a tweet that a person in Germany, a German person rather had posted [00:25:00] saying, you know, something to the effect of you can't have this because you're fasting during Ramadan.

Ha ha ha ha ha. And this has become one of the, um, tactics of people who are not Muslim, who do not observe Ramadan is to, number one, complain that the news would even talk about Ramadan, that anybody would even acknowledge that Muslims are real and that Ramadan is real and that they have to fast during Ramadan.

People hate it when we talk about it. People hate, people hate that we talk about Ramadan. They hate it. They despise it. Somebody told me that we were virtue signaling and I laughed, I laughed, he said, all you're doing is like skipping a meal. That's not even intermittent fasting. You're just skipping a meal.

And you know what I said to him? I said, well, if you're so upset about it, you know, turn your anger into action. Yeah, for the next 30 [00:26:00] days, try to do a Ramadan and see how far you get, because a lot of people believe, a lot of people who do not fast, and even some Muslims believe that all we're doing is not eating when that isn't even the half of it.

It's not just that you cannot eat for a certain amount of time. It's not just that you cannot drink anything for a certain amount of time. You can't have sex. You're not watching TV. You're not listening to music. You're not playing video games. You may even have to be out on the field, out on the soccer field, out, you know, in the basketball court.

You have to still work and be hungry. You have to still work and be thirsty. You have to still labor and be thirsty and hungry. You have to still deal with people and try not to get to anger. So you break your fast. Yeah. Getting angry and cursing people and fighting that breaks your fast that [00:27:00] invalidates your fast.

And then there's a day you have to make up. So it's not just food. It's that you are trying to become a less crazy, less attached to the life of this world person. You are relinquishing your attachments to all of these emotions and, and all of these things. And you are becoming closer to Allah. You're becoming closer to Allah.

And for some people that is really hard. That is a hard thing to do. Because there are distractions everywhere. Or maybe you don't feel like you have it in you to do it. And so, teasing us with food, it doesn't do anything. Because that's the least of it. That's the least of what Ramadan is about. In contemplating, you know, The person we've been in all of the months preceding Ramadan and the person we want to be subsequent to walk to Ramadan and we're thinking of, [00:28:00] gosh, I have so many needs Allah.

What do I ask Allah for? I have so many needs and we're crying to him and we're studying the Quran. We're reading. We're trying to learn a new Sura maybe. a new chapter of the Quran. We're trying to understand, or maybe it's our first Ramadan and we've never fasted a day in our lives. And oh my God, I, I, I, I take my hat off to these people.

When I fast, when I fasted for the first time, I think I was seven. I may have been seven years old. I am now a lot older than that. It was during the summertime. Can you imagine you're a kid during the summertime in the, in the 1980s, the early 80s, and you can't have any water to drink from the water hose, you can't have a freeze pop, and the ice cream man coming up and down your street, and you can't have any of that, and all of your little friends are outside.

And they got all their [00:29:00] treats and candy and everybody's drink and it's hot man is hot. This is back in the day when we would have actual heat waves that would make you sick. And You can't have any of it. Can you imagine how hard that is for a child? It's, it's beyond just that part of it. Just that part of it, that refrain, it's that part is harder for different groups of people. For me, the not eating, the not drinking is not as hard as controlling my mouth. controlling my mouth, man.

Listen, y'all know I get worked up. Y'all know I get worked up, honey. I get worked up and I'm getting better about not getting so, uh, uppity and emotional about things. I'm getting a lot better, but there are some things like, don't, don't, don't tell jokes about my religion. Like there are other religious people who tolerate these things.

I don't tolerate it. I do not. I [00:30:00] don't tolerate the jokes. You know, even amongst Muslims, some jokes that we tell, I'm kind of like, Oh, that makes me feel uncomfortable because we don't take religion as a joke. We certainly don't take Allah as a joke. And I was, you know, I was listening to the Quran today and I'm listening to, um, the different surahs and, and, and, and Allah says, you know, do you take me as a joke?

Do you take religion as a joke? Let me show you,

let me show you why you should not do that. Let me show you why this ain't sweet. You know, and it's like, there's this, um, I don't even want to give five minutes to this person, but mashallah, new people have been called to Islam. And one of those people is Sean King, right? Great. He's made this entire spectacle about his reversion.

And let me tell you something, Allah makes Muslims, [00:31:00] Allah makes Muslims. Allah makes Muslims. Again, Allah guides whom he wills allah guides who he wants to and he turns away who he wants to. If Allah guided Shaun King to Islam, beautiful, wonderful. I'm so happy for him and his wife. I really am.

I really am. I love being Muslim. I think it's wonderful. If the whole world could be, I would want it to be. I know that is not possible. I know it's not possible. I'm not even delusional and I respect people's beliefs. I am so happy for him. There are people who are questioning it. There are Muslims who are questioning it.

There are non Muslims who are questioning it and making jokes about it. And there was a particular person who made a joke about it. And this was after I had seen and heard so many other people making jokes about this, because, you know, Sean King has a reputation. I've talked about it on my podcast and he has a reputation for being [00:32:00] a grifter and a scammer and all of these things.

And one of the things that happens when you embrace Islam. Is your slate is wiped clean. All of your bad deeds are wiped out. You're starting from the beginning, but you still have to answer to the people you hurt. And that is something that we forget is that even though our sins have been washed away.

We have to as I always like to say you still got to answer for Santino. Remember that from the godfather? They dude still had to answer for for Santino for killing Santino. Yeah, it's great I'm godfather to your son Michaels like yeah, I'm godfather to your son. Great. My sister is married to you Fantastic.

You still got to answer for killing my brother for setting up the murder of my brother. And that's how, that's how it is in Islam. Yes, your slate has been wiped clean, but you still got to answer for you guys. You still got to answer to the people that you hurt. You still got to answer for the hurt that you caused and that trips people up.[00:33:00]

It does. It trips people up. We think we're, you know, yeah, we're clean, but you still got to answer. And I feel that, um, in trying to hold him accountable for the things he did before he became Muslim, people are getting into showing their ass. And their Islamophobia, and they're allowing their Islamophobia to come out.

That thing that they swear up and down. They have never, they, they, they're not, they're not like that at all. I love everyone. I don't care what religion you are. I don't care if you worshipped a plate of spaghetti. Orrrr. It takes very little, very little prodding to get somebody to show a bit of bigotry.

All it takes is a news story or somebody to wrong you and suddenly you're making all kinds of jokes and using slurs and you're referring to all people who are in that particular group as a slur. Or you're telling, your government not to let those people into your country, or you're, looking at [00:34:00] a story about Ramadan on the news and why do they get a whole new story?

Listen, I've been Muslim my entire life. I live in a country that is full of Christians and Muslims and Jewish people and people who celebrate. all kinds of, of, of traditions. They're Indians and then there are indigenous people and there are, you know, people from all walks of life. I know about all of the celebrations.

I've learned about all of them. It does not bother me one bit, but I know it bothers other people. It doesn't bother me. You know, people are happy about Christmas and Easter and people are happy about St. Patrick's day. Why would that bother me? Those are not my beliefs. I have my own, I have my own celebrations.

I have my own special times. And frankly, I love seeing people having a good time being festive and happy when people are in a good mood. Like during these seasons, a lot of people are in a good mood and they're very nice. They're very charitable. [00:35:00] They're very polite. They're in a good mood. They're, you know, feeling the spirit.

I love seeing that because the rest of the year, a lot of us are not nice people. So I love to see it. I love to see people having a good time. So it doesn't bother me Christmas. Not what? Okay, go have a good time. Great. That's not what I believe, but go be happy. It's your, you know, it's Rosh Hashanah. It's your new year.

Okay. Go have fun. I'm happy for you, and I'm not even being sarcastic. I, I'm really, I'm delighted that people have traditions and they have celebrations, and they have things that make them feel good. There's enough misery and disgusting thing things happening in the world, and there are people who are prevented from having these things where if they wanted to, if somebody wanted to have a wedding or a birthday party in Gaza, how terrible it is.

They're so sad that it is there that they wouldn't even have food. They wouldn't even have food to eat [00:36:00] at a party. We're lucky. We're very fortunate that we get to have these things. But when someone sees a story about Ramadan and they comment negatively and they make disparaging remarks and tell jokes about our religion, I get worked up.

I do. I jumped, I jumped to defend Islam, I defend people who come to Islam because Allah makes Muslims. That's his decision. It's not mine. So Sean King wants to be Muslim. He reverted, Allah brought him to Islam. Great. People making jokes, saying things like, um, Scamadon and Salaam, uh, scam a lake. Um, it's, you know, you get a little chuckle out of it. You think it's funny. You think it's funny to us to take something that's important, like Ramadan and use it to tell a joke about somebody.

You think that's hilarious. The word Ramadan is so important. I would never think to make a joke about it. And I don't think that you should be making jokes about [00:37:00] it. The podcaster, actress, comedian, Amanda Seals posted a story about Sean King and she, you know, converting to Islam and she asked people what they thought about it.

Now she asked us what we thought. Okay. You know me, I'm gonna say what I think. Not all the time, not all the time. I've gotten better as I've said, but I said the, the comment that I made. Because she said Salama, she said she made a joke like it was like scam a lake. Um, or yes scam a lake. Um, and When we say a salamu alaykum or salamu alaykum, that is an important greeting that is peace be unto you Peace peace is important.

Peace is important. That means I wish you a happy Good way a good journey I wish you elation. It's important for us. I see people I don't know who are Muslim and I say, Assalamu [00:38:00] alaikum salamu alaikum. There are people who see that I'm Muslim and they may not be Muslim, but they see that I'm Muslim and they will say, Assalamu alaikum salamu alaikum and I'll say walaikum salam.

It's important. So when you go, Assalamu alaikum and laugh, she laughed. She thought it was funny. I don't find it funny. And I said, tread carefully, keep your jokes about Islam and people's religious beliefs in the file drawers. You would have think, you would think, you would think that I had cussed this lady out, called her a bad name, because she's an ally.

She's an ally to the Muslims, the Palestinians. She's been, she's been very good about bringing a good voice and attention to the war in Gaza, the, the genocide. She's been very good about this, but this is the thing that I know about allies is [00:39:00] sometimes allies need to be checked. Okay. And it's okay. It's okay.

Sometimes you have a person who is a friend of the Negroes, right? Who will use the N word and they need to be checked about it, and you should check them about it. There are people who are friends of Muslims who are friends of the Islamic community. They are, they are not Muslim, but they are our friends.

They are our allies, true allies. And sometimes they say something ignorant and they need to be checked about it, and it is okay. It doesn't mean that they are a bad person. It doesn't mean that they are a bad person. And I, in fact, did not even, I didn't call her a name at all. I didn't insinuate. I didn't imply that she was a bad person because she did this because she's not, but she went off on me. You invited people to say what they think. And all I did was remind people that this is not about Islam or his religious beliefs. If you want to criticize him, fine, [00:40:00] but the jokes, stop it with the jokes. And this is the second, third, fourth, fifth time. I've had to remind people who are intelligent and knowing who put themselves out there to be intelligista, to be, you know, scholars and, and they're up there, they, they're authors and they know what they're talking about.

Once again, and to remind these people, Michael Harriot. That joke's about Islam. Joke's about, you know, Oh, it's just a play on words to say scammer. No, no, it's not a play on words. That's not a word you play on. And see, this is what people don't understand about Muslims at that. There are some things that are so sacred to us.

We do not play. You can play with what you do. We don't play with what we do. We don't. We don't. And nor should you. And if I correct you, then that's just that. And people came, people came after me. Honey, what do you mean shred carefully? Is that a threat? [00:41:00] What am I going to do to this lady? Through the phone.

What am I going to do? Nothing. It's not a threat. It's a reminder that our religion, our culture is not fodder for your comedy routine. It's not a joke to us. And if I'm telling you that these things are offensive, perhaps you should think about it first. Think about it. Think about why someone would say that.

Think about the current climate of Islamophobia in the world. And how easy it is for people to descend into nastiness and disgusting comments and maybe dial it back, maybe clarify, maybe try to understand, maybe try to understand instead of lashing out instead of being defensive, instead of being fragile, a bit of being instead of lashing out [00:42:00] instead of screaming and yelling.

Maybe try to understand why someone would think that that joke that you told is not funny. And I'm going to keep correcting people. I don't care how you feel about it. My religion is not a joke. Ramadan is not a joke. Ramadan is more than just some people who are not eating during the day. It's deeper than that. It's sacred to us. It is a sacred month.

The month in which our holy book was revealed to our beloved prophet. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. It's our book of rules. That's what we live by. That's our code. It's not funny. It's not a joke the same way you all are sitting in the stands at Kansas City Chiefs game and you're wearing the Native American You don't even know which Native American which tribe which community it comes from It's just some shit you put on your head and you think this is funny and cute and oh, well They they took they said there this one Native American guy said that it was okay And there were, you know what, [00:43:00] there were Muslims in the comment section who, uh, on this one poster that I made, they said, Well, I wasn't offended.

I thought it was funny. It doesn't bother me. It's okay. I didn't even ask you. I didn't even ask you. And you know it's not okay. , it's not okay, but you want to fit in. You want these people to like you. You don't want to ruffle any feathers. You don't want to seem like an extremist, honey. They're laughing at you.

They are laughing at you and you're allowing it. I feel sorry for you. And I feel sorry for anyone who laughs and think this is funny. I don't make jokes about Christians and Christmas and Easter and Jewish people. I don't make jokes. It's not funny. If I see something on TV that you all have put out, and it's a, you're making fun of Prophet Isa Alayhi Salam or you're making jokes about Mary, his mother, Mary, uh, Radi Allahu Anha, and you all think this is funny.

I don't think [00:44:00] it's funny at all. All of these depictions and things. I don't think this shit is funny at all. But you all allow it. You all allow it. You do. You absolutely do. You let Charlton Heston play Moses, for God's sake. I mean, come on. If you all would not allow that so much, then you wouldn't feel it's okay to make fun of other people's religion too, because you allow your religion to me to be made fun of.

Maybe if you didn't do that, then you wouldn't feel like it's okay to make fun of someone else's religious beliefs and things that are important to their religious practice. to their culture. Maybe you wouldn't be sitting in the stands at a Chiefs game. Maybe there wouldn't even be Chiefs. You wouldn't be sitting there with some silly headdress and on and your face painted looking like a fucking clown.

Maybe if you respected your own culture, your own practices, maybe if you had any to begin [00:45:00] with, you would see that they're important and then you would feel less compelled to tear down others. or to make other people feel bad or less than or humiliated for what they believe. I hope, I always hope, I always have hope for a brighter tomorrow.

I know tomorrow better, better now, better now. Honestly, I am so happy that it's Ramadan. I love this month. I love how it brings all of the Muslims together. I love how it shows non Muslims what Muslims are capable of. Maybe they didn't know.

It shows them a side of us that maybe they didn't see before. It's a time for us to strengthen ourselves, to be humble, to increase our goodness and just to be better people. And I hope that we all can be better people. This has been Ayanna Explains It All brought to [00:46:00] you by Facts, Figures, and Enlightenment.

Take care.