Ramadhan 2011/1432
Depending on which part of the globe one lives, this Ramadhan will seem no different to previous Ramadhans. Yes, it is hotter, and it has fallen within the school holidays putting the conflicting state vs. faith issue on hold for at least the next few years. It is also a time in the development of the West that it has reached its limits in terms of living in a state of excess, a condition Ramadhan reminds us is not sustainable.
However, Ramadhan 2011 is different in a very significant way because 2011 has born witness to the surfacing of our miscreations confronting us with what until far too many of us have been able to get away with doing without suffering the consequences.
Symbolic of our miscreations has been the Egyptian January 25th Revolution, even though the Tunisian Revolution is more politically and spiritually grounded. But it is the Egyptian Revolution that has sent ripples throughout the world. It has brought to the surface the capitalistic exploitation of human and natural resources, and speaking out against the many injustices: corruption amongst top officials, human and civil rights abuses, right to the truth, the rights of the earth, the realization that the global wealth is in the hands of a few is used to keep peoples divided and without the right to self determination. As a Muslim population living side by side a Coptic population, the false barriers of separation that create unsustainable living conditions have also been challenged leading to the right to practice one’s faith in private and public i.e. is the pluralism of Islam as a well as the right of representation.
These are momentous achievements that arose out of a peoples will, not policy, not politics, and not organized religion. In this regard Ramadhan 2011 should be experienced in the full meaning of the spirit of Islam, with compassion, and in recognition that as Islam as always taught us that jihad-an-nafs is the greatest battle that any human has to face or in the words of a non-Muslim:
“One of the most difficult things is not to change society – but to change yourself.” Nelson Mandela
The great subconscious leap that lies in the hearts of the average Egyptian person, is layered with fear, the fear of failure, because it is a leap into the unknown, but what is known is that the system that we have fallen prey and party to is no longer conceivable. To make that leap in faith requires trust, the trust that we have not allowed ourselves to have for so long. Yet now we have no choice because Allah (SWT) warned us:
{We will soon show them Our signs in the Universe and in their own souls, until it will become quite clear to them that it is the truth.} (Al-Fussilat, 41/53)
Inspirational teacher Marianne Williamson said:
“I’m not a doom-and-gloom person. But I think there is a difference between transcendence and denial, and much of the Western world is in major denial today.”
Yet as we know, it is all of us that have replaced the spirit with Islam with dos and dont’s, those of us who have given up on one acts of worship one by one as a result of the narrowly defined dos and donts that propel us towards separation of self, family, relatives, society and further fragmentation of Islam that has leeched us into a condition explained as:
“The systematic oppression of the people has made them blinded to their reality. Everybody’s just thinking about survival. Nobody wants to stand up for anything, everybody just wants to tow the line. So I’m trying to make people think about these things that they are forgetting. I want to inspire people to want things to change.” – Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
A words of a non-Muslim by name, but the words of a Muslim by nature for Islam is not merely a name, it is a natural state, the state of being in submission to the Laws of Nature that guides all creation. How else is it that Islam has always been since the first man Adham/Adam? It is this spirit of Islam we have missed within ourselves in terms of self acceptance, because unless we accept even the parts of ourselves which we do not like how can we transmute those aspects as a part of our spiritual ascension or jihad an nafs? How else can we expect to achieve harmony within society if that harmony does not exist within our souls?
{Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, “We believe”, and not be tried?} (Al-Ankabut, 29/2)
Like the lessons that members of Egyptian society will have to learn before they can achieve the change they wish to see, we have to be the change we want to be in order to see it made manifest instead of resting on the laurels of a few hadiths that lead to one direction i.e. man is born weak! The weakness we must accept because it is a part of our nature, but this weakness becomes an addiction, an excuse that makes jihad an nafs null and void.
We are born on a covenant, and that covenant with Allah (SWT) means rising to the occasion for
{To the righteous soul will be said:) “O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and come back thou to thy Lord, – well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him! Satisfaction! Enter thou, then, among My devotees! Yea, enter thou My Heaven!} (Al-Fajr 89:27-30]
What satisfies the ego does not satisfy the soul for what satisfies the soul is more simple than we complicate our lives with, and is more enduring. What satisfies the ego is temporary, and when the ego is satiated, it gets hungry for more pushing us towards the very thing that will form a permanent hunger in our souls, to the extent that it can become an ill-defined sadness. Yet, Allah (SWT) lets us know that we are not slaves though we may enslave ourselves with the attachments of the ego that our contented souls comes first before we can in turn satisfy Him for to satisfy Him is to satisfy all creation because to satisfy the soul requires letting of the self, the ego, the BIG I which is the cause of all separation in life. By letting go, by submitting we have room for all that there is without conditions.
Ramadhan allows us to learn how to let go of the BIG I, to make room for being, making mistakes, and from being flows a river of energy from our souls towards a greater harmony of life.
2011 has presented us with many signs, but it is our choice as to whether to continue living in a state of separation or a state of Islam!
The creed of Islam is given to us here in a nutshell:
{Say ye: “We believe in God, and the revelation Given to us, and to Abraham, in God, and the revelation Given to us, and to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses, and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them. And we bow to God (in Islam)} (Al Baqarah 2: 136)
The Muslim position is clear. The Muslim does not claim to have a religion peculiar to himself. Islam is not a sect, or an ethnic religion. In its view all religions are one, for the Truth is one. IT WAS THE SAME RELIGION BY ALL THE EARLIER PROPHETS. (Qur’an 42: 13). It was the truth taught by all the inspired Books. In essence it amounts to a consciousness of the Will and Plan of God and a joyful submission to that Will and Plan. IF ANYONE WANTS A RELIGION OTHER THAN THAT, HE IS FALSE TO HIS OWN NATURE, AS HE IS FALSE TO GOD’S WILL AND PLAN Such a one cannot expect guidance, for he has deliberately renounced guidance. – Ahmed Deedat
This also means that all the barriers we have erected within ourselves, with each in faith and across faiths other must fall.
May we all rise to the heights we are capable of, even in the midst of evil, and may the sadness that lurks in our souls get our recognition so that it will no longer reflect in our lives insha’Allah.
Related Topics:
This Ramadhan, I will …
Ramadhan Re-Runs With Baba ‘Ali
The Ramadhan Reminder: Taking Time Out With God
From the Symbolic Ascension to the Ascension of Our Lives
A Season for Forgiveness
Night Prayer and the Human Body Clock
Keep Ramadhan Simple!
Heavenly Signs: July New Moon Solar Eclipse 2011
Faith vs. Ego!
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