Abdal Hakim Murad – 2018 Ramadan Moments 6
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Cambridge Muslim College,
training the next generation of Muslim thinkers.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that Ramadan
progresses through
3 stages. This is through the prophetic
guidance,
mercy,
forgiveness,
liberation from fire. This is
a natural progression.
Ramadan is a journey. Each day follows on
from the one before. The first day of
Ramadan isn't like the 10th day, and the
10th day is not like the 27th day.
It's
a staircase.
And
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in dealing with the
question of mercy
and the human
absolute, abject need for mercy.
And the need to be slaves,
therefore, of the merciful has these famous verses
which will be which begin,
Slaves of the all compassionate are those who
walk gently on the earth
and who when the ignorant
address them answer peace.
Who wants to do this?
We saw in a previous lecture that
Ramadan is a time when we're a little
bit
humbled,
a little bit brought low, and that the
spirit can
begin
to prevail within us.
Here we are seeing
that
having this this
slave hood to the Rahman
means that you walk gently on the earth,
and when the ignorant
address you, you reply peace. A
really important lesson there. In other words, if
you are abd,
really a slave of Allah,
not of your ego
or your pride
or your ideology or anything other than him,
you will be one who walks gently on
the earth. You will be marching around or
strutting.
Impossible.
And when
people who don't know
talk to you,
You
know, bunch of teenagers in the street who
are just chilling and kind of shout out
to you, whatever it might be, something insignificant.
They say peace,
the most beautiful of all greetings.
It's not just, hi,
which means nothing.
Wouldn't it be great if they were saying
hi? But no, they just say hi.
They're happy to be meaningless.
And we say, assalamu alaykum. Peace be with
you.
And one of the possible daleels of this
is the permissibility
of saying
salaamu alaykum to people who aren't even Muslim
because they're jahilaun
ignorant,
but you can say salaam to them.
So,
that's how it begins and this should be
how the people of Ramadan are.
And those who spend their nights
prostrating
and standing
for their Lord.
Important part of the fasting month.
The the prayer of Taraweeh
is a big sunnah.
It's important.
It transforms
life in Muslim communities.
It's a time for togetherness
that has no equal other than the Jumuah
prayer which is a little bit different because
the Jumuah prayer is 2 rakas and a
Khutba.
And
nowadays the Khutba tends to be long, the
2 rakas tend to be really short. Every
prophet said that was one of the signs
of the end of times. The Khutba should
be pretty short, and the prayer which benefits
us more should be long. If you look
at the Khutba's of the holy prophets, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, you see they occupy a
page or
so. And they only deal with things that
everybody's going
to recognize
immediately. It's not some kind of
philosophy class
or justification
of any ideology.
It's repeating hand,
soled, indication of and so forth. But we
have that once a week. But the which
is the other time when become really crowded
and really alive, and there's a different atmosphere.
Special atmosphere. There's a certain excitement
despite the fact that we just spent the
day in your steer practice of fasting.
And we're now going to spend
the next hour, hour and a half, even
2 hours
in another practice,
of listening.
Listening to the voice of the infinite.
Standing
and prostrating.
So the slaves of the all compassionate are
also those who spend their nights
prostrating
and standing before their lord.
This Priyam.
That's a sign of
the.
And what is it that they're doing?
What's the essence of the prayer? Well, it
has many essences. Solidarity, the salaam that you
say to those around you.
The unity of the Muslims that is signified.
The atmosphere of greater taqwa and khushur
happens when you're in the Jummah rather than
praying Falooda on your own, all of these.
The Sajda, which is the essence of how
human beings should be in this
state of being,
slaves of the all compassionate.
The physical enactment of something that sometimes we
just say.
And
the voice,
capital v, the sound of eternity.
What are we hearing?
What is the imam the half
is resonating with? Well, it's not an ordinary
sound or an ordinary voice or an ordinary
book. It is God's word. This is what
we
believe.
God's uncreated speech
in some sense that boggles the mind, it's
always been there
and will always be there.
We come and we go, but this is
part of the eternity of things.
Says,
signs from the all compassionate
renewed,
but ancient. Their ancientness
is as the ancientness
of he who is characterized
by unbeknownst.
And this is the
the the gift.
Ramadan is the month of the Quran.
And the month in which therefore we reconnect
with
beyond even the meanings.
Will try and figure out the meanings.
But beyond the meaning, just the sound, the
breath of God himself is what resonates within
us. The
the secret, the mystery of recitation. That what
is happening, what is emerging into this world
of space and time is something that is
from beyond space and time, something from eternity.
And so for so therefore we participate in
it. We're transformed by it. It works its
mysterious
alchemy on our souls, and
we know that we can listen to it
at length.
More than listening to
Plato or
whatever. It's there's something there that is beyond
just
even the poetry of the text, even just
the meanings of the text.
There is an ontology, there is the being
of the Quran,
which is what
fills us up during the month of Ramadan,
and which is one of its
great gifts.
And then towards the end of the month,
towards the end there is
salvation from fire.
So this passage we've been looking at, the
sequence,
the string of verses
about the Ibad al Rahman, the slaves of
the all compassionate. Now we get to and
they say, oh, our Lord, ward off from
us
the pain of Jahannam
because its punishment is a dreadful penalty indeed.
There's another characteristic of those who are submissive
to their lord because they recognize his power,
his omnipotence,
his capacity to punish beyond any capacity of
human beings to bear. And we see in
this world even
forms of suffering and burning, and we know
that it's part of the way His arranged
creation. He can do it, and He does
do it
after death. And may Allah
grant us protection from that. And make us
one of those Ibad al Rahman who say,
Our Lord, ward
off from us the punishment of jahannam. Its
punishment is a dreadful
penalty indeed. So may Allah grant us
rescue, salvation from * fire as
not the the recompense for our fasting because
we can never do anything that deserves anything
from him, let alone eternity
and infinity.
But instead, let this month be a sign
of his good favor towards us and his
acceptance and his forgiveness and his grace. So
that insha Allah, this is indeed
the month when as the Hadith says,
The gates of * are locked shut.
May we inshallah never approach those gates and
may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala deliver us into
his gardens
through the Shafa'a of his chosen ones, salallahu
alaihi wasalam, and make this month an anticipation
insha'Allah
of the egoless
gardens of eternity.
Insha'Allah.
May Iftar be
ultimately
at the meeting with with our lord.
Inshallah, may Allah accept your fasting.
Cambridge Muslim College,
training the next generation of Muslim thinkers.