The Secret of Fasting in Ramadan by Shaykh Yaser Birjas

Shaykh Yaser Birjas from AlMaghrib Institute (www.almaghrib.org) gives an insightful reminder about the true purpose of fasting, and how we can achieve our goals in Ramadan.

Organized, recorded, and produced by Qabeelat Durbah on August 10, 2011, at alMeraj Center in Bayonne, NJ.

Shaykh Yaser Birjas is the Head of AlMaghrib Institute's Islamic Law and Theory Department. Often described as the fatherly figure by students, Shaykh Yaser exudes a calm, gentle and caring demeanour that welcomes students to ask questions with awe and respect. Despite his quietude, Shaykh Yaser's absence is loudly felt and he is strongly missed by all students and fellow instructors alike.

Perpetually migrating, Shaykh Yaser is originally from Palestine and was born in Kuwait in 1970. He started his career in Electronic Engineering in 1988 in the UAE, then in Madinah where he graduated as class Valedictorian with the highest honors from The Islamic University of Madinah's College of Shariah (Fiqh and Usool) in 1996. He had the honor to interact and learn from a number of highly respected scholars such as Shaikh Ash-Shanqitee and Shaikh Al-Uthaimeen (rahimahu Allah).

In 1997, after the war was over, he went to work as a relief program aide under the international umbrella of relief agencies to rebuild the war-torn Bosnia. Thereafter, and in the year 2000, he immigrated to the U.S. where he served as an Imam (spiritual leader and advisor) at The Islamic Center in El Paso, Texas until summer 2009. He then moved to Orland Park IL, a Chicago suburb, where he worked, until summer 2010, as a director of English programs in Da'wah and outreach for the Orland Park Prayer Center.

He travels around the nation to teach academic classes in Islamic studies as well as to speak on different social subjects pertinent to the lives of Muslims in the West. His specialty in the subject of marriage and relations made him a highly sought marriage counselor for the Muslim community.

Shaykh Yaser currently lives in Irving Texas, with his wife and four children.