Ramadhan and Faith

Ramadhan and Faith

Faith
The biggest challenge to us in this life is maintaining a balance between worldliness and spirituality. Worldliness has tremendous attractions for us. It is short term, and it is immediate and it is immediately gratifying. Spirituality is a long term goal and it requires patience, perseverance and above all faith.

We were created weak and the world was created attractive. The only tool given to us to fight this deadly combination is faith in our belief that our Creator wanted some thing better for us than the life of this world. If we believe that Creation was an accident than it hardly matters but if we believe that Creation was deliberate and purposeful then that is faith.

The flesh needs the world for it’s survival but survival alone is not the goal. We may survive in poverty or we may survive in luxury, hardly matters because death will take it all away. If we believe that this is the only life that we will have, then it does matter (unless we have tasted spirituality) but if we believe that this is but a small part of our total existence then that is faith.

A just society
If we are drawn to sex, power, wealth then we have gone beyond survival to exploitation. One seldom sets out to exploit, one first becomes a member of an exploitative society. It is that society that makes heroes of worldly people, worldly exploits and eggs us on to define worldliness as the end rather than a means to an end.

When I say this to you, I talk about Islam but you may not recognize this as Islam. This is not what you have seen Muslims practice. In fact it is what you have seen non Muslims practice. The Muslims have strayed too far from Islam to sometimes recognize their own religion but I can quote you verse after verse after verse from the Quran that says nothing but this.

One of my favorite verses from the Quran is;

Al-Imran (The Family of Imran)
Sura 3:185, "Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception."..

Again from the Quran

Al Hadid
Sura 57:20. Know ye (all), that the life of this world is but play and pastime, adornment and mutual boasting and multiplying, (in rivalry) among yourselves, riches and children. Here is a similitude: how rain and the growth which it brings forth, delight (the hearts of) the tillers; soon it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then it becomes dry and crumbles away. But in the Hereafter is a Chastisement severe (for the devotees of wrong). And Forgiveness from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure (for the devotees of Allah). And what is the life of this world, but goods and chattels of deception?

The Bible also says something similar;

David says in Psalms 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." We can not come out from our sinful nature by our good deeds or by our own efforts. Yes, we need a Savior, ( Allah) we need a Messiah who can rescue us from our sins. ..

It is only when we become members of a Just Society that we abhor exploitation and that we bring to justice, the exploiter even in this world. If we set out to create a Just Society, we benefit not just ourselves but also mankind.

Worldliness is so self absorbing that Allah has provided us with instructions to pull ourselves away from it’s affairs so as to remind ourselves, five times a day, that our goal is to return to our creator and be able to say to Him that we have accomplished what we were sent to accomplish.

Ramadhan
Even this has to be supplemented by devoting one month in a year to abstaining from what the flesh desires and what our ego demands. There is the outer fasting and then there is the inner fasting. If all one does is to go hungry and thirsty, then that is not a complete fast.

Here are some examples of Inner fasting:

Avoid excessive speech, learn to listen.
If we do not learn patience from the act of fasting, then we have missed something about this great rite of worship.
Ramadan is known as the month for spending in the way of Allah. It is the time for us to enter onto calculations for determining if we have given 2.5 % of our Savings in Zakat.
There is a Haddith, during Ramadan the devils are locked up. It is therefore easier for us to focus on our mission without interference of our our baser instincts.


In American corporations, once a year, the senior management will do a “retreat”.
This means they go offsite and lock themselves away from day to day for two to three days and focus on reviewing the Mission of the Corporation. They will come out of the retreat not only with a better understanding of the Mission but also a long term plan for the success of the company. This is not dissimilar to the Etaeqaf that Muslims will do in the last 10 days of Ramadhan when they become aloof from the world and spend their time meditating on their mission and developing a plan for the remaining 11 months.

If Islam was a Corporation, then who would be the senior management? Not the Imam, not the Islamic Scholar, not the Ayatollah. The senior management of Islam is each one of us. Imagine the entire Islamic Ummah participating in a retreat world wide in the last ten days of Ramadhan. Imagine coming out of this with a common mission without having spoken to one another. The mission is the same, we just have to refresh it. The test is how we put it into practice in the following 11 months. Whether we sit in Aiteqaf or are awake during nights to worship or just enter into the spirit of Ramadhan, we are all in a special “retreat”. The long term plans are being formulated but first we need to ask ourselves the question, how arrogant have we become? To what extent are we the exploiter or are we the exploited? If we are the exploited, how is it that we have allowed this to happen?

If we are the exploiter, we have to seek the forgiveness of Allah but if we are the exploited then we need to seek the assistance of Allah. Perhaps we are exploited precisely because we have taken as out friends and guardians people other than Allah. The Muslim Ummah as a whole will in all likelihood come to the conclusion that we are more the exploited then the exploiter. When it seeks the assistance of Allah, the first thing that will happen is that the Ummah will come together, Arabs, Turks, Chinese, Shias, Sunnis, Ismailis, will feel a common bond and feel the shame of being disunited and seeking the approval of worldly powers rather than of Allah.

My appeal to all Muslims is that if each of you believe that you are the senior management of Islam then behave as such. I repeat, do not look to the Mullah, or the Alim or the Ayatullah for leadership. Take ownership of your faith, take ownership of your destiny, take strength from Allah. Be humble, be kind, be patient but above all be firm. Your faith is too valuable to be compromised, but if you have compromised it then seek forgiveness and start afresh after these 10 days. Let the first of October, 2008 be a new dawn for Islam.