Abdal Hakim Murad – Connecting to Fitrah

Cambridge Muslim college training the next generation of Muslim

thinkers

is Billa Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. Earlier he

was off he woman while up, entering the space of the fasting

month puts us into a very different cognitive frame.

We need change just as we need continuity. If life was nothing

but stasis and routine would hardly be human, it's those

disruptions that bring us to life.

But similarly, if life was nothing but disruption, and no stillness,

and no continuity, anxiety, and agitation would overwhelm us. So

our lives are in a sense lived in a balance between the new and the

familiar.

Islamic pattern of worship by which heavens seeks to reconnect

us to our created biological cosmic selves, is a return from

linear time, to cyclical time, ancient humanity, experience not

the ticking of a clock, but rather the rising the setting of the sun,

the phases of the moon, the human bio rhythms, male as well as

female, are linked very closely to these diurnal circadian and

monthly rhythms. We are engaged with the created world.

Modernity takes us away from that

snatches us as it were from the womb, which is our real identity,

and plunges us into an unfamiliar, dry in many ways, threatening

space.

Religion, however, is about reconnecting mind, body and spirit

and producing a holistic, balanced human being. This is the me Zan,

which is to be there, in the horizon of the soul, as well as in

the horizon of the outside world.

So human beings are a kind of microcosm of the larger created

existence, the larger created existence is, in a sense, a sign

of what we are, one is the matrix of the other and its purpose.

So when we enter a sacred space, we move away from linear time that

ultimately artificial, human inspired ticking of the clock, and

move into cyclical time, sacred time, that is, in a sense, a

measure of a sacred space. To the extent that it reminds us of what

time really is subjective, but divine, and linked to the reality

of the movement of the sun and the moon, it is a sacred space.

So in a traditional mosque, one as it were, sits down, and whether or

not there is a clock present, one notices the movement of the sun

through the windows, well notice is that the prayer times are

determined by the rolling of the planet beneath our feet. Well

notice is that the month that determined not by the random

conventions of the Emperor Julius Caesar, but rather by something

that is intrinsic in the creation itself, has been where Shamsul

will come true, because Ben, the sun and the moon are there for

reckoning, and also the solar and the moon, are there, Lita Allah

more either they're seen in? Well, he said, so that you might know

the number of the years and calculation.

So when we enter one of these lunar months, and we do so most

emphatically when the Hillel is cited and Ramadan comes upon us,

we are much more acutely aware of this aspect of our dependence upon

the cosmic matrix of our of our naturalness were taken away from

the artificial haste of modernity and pitched into a space where the

sun and the moon still determine our metabolism and our activities

and the form of our life in the way that they did. For primordial

man 99% of the history of our species we've lived as part of

nature, modernity has taken us out of that with various psychic and

environmental consequences. Religion is there to put us back

into it without making us complete outsiders. So Ramadan is a

reminder of that gift Ramadan is when we notice the phases of the

moon. Ramadan is when we notice the rising of the setting of the

sun as prehistoric mandate and hence there is a certain healing

because we are reconnected to that form of life, which is a

biological form, which is our true nature. So fasting is a spiritual

healing, as well as the physical healing that she thought of

So more to settle. First, be healthy is the commandment that is

not just about intermittent fasting that medical science now

agrees is part of what we are. And part of what is good for us.

prehistoric man didn't snack all day, but had occasional large

meals and then went hungry and thirsty for an extended period

while he was looking for the next. waterhole, our metabolism is not

adjusted for modern life, whether it's always a coffee machine at

hand at another snack bar. No, we're designed to be cyclically,

hungry and sated. And Ramadan connects us to that through

intermittent fasting and reawaken something that is natural in our

metabolism. So physically healthy for sure.

But also spiritually healthy in this deepest sense of reconnecting

us to the fitrah.

But there is another dimension to this, which is that when we are

connected to fitrah, our awareness of the world becomes sharper. We

notice things better. Why because we're not distracted by thoughts

of the next snack. And we notice the world and we are distant from

it in a sense that improves our capacity to observe.

The natural world is itself a form of nourishment. The sign of the

real believer is that he genuinely lives according to the Quranic

instruction, that the fact coffee healthy Samoa at will. That's the

mark of the believer thinks about the way Heaven and Earth are

created. Not in some kind of naturalistic theology, logic

chopping way but more elemental. These are the All Al Bab the

people of inner sight of course, the seed that most organic,

natural thing that is within us that is the receptacle of the

ministry of the Spirit is focused and made more luminous during the

month of Ramadan.

Either duckula Chateau Ramadan footie hut Abu Abu Jana, or

wholecut, a Waggoner also fidgety Shayateen honored I'm honored in

your about real hired Hello, are you about here shall Oxford

well then Hadith in terms of the where the month of Ramadan comes

in the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of * are locked.

And the herald angel calls out, are you who seek for good rise up?

Are you who seek for evil, restrain yourselves.

And this is our experience in Ramadan, that the vices come less

easily.

gluttony and lust are the most obviously sedated and abolished

which enables the spiritual site to become sharper, but the others

also

we find a greater sense of reluctance to talise. To engage in

backbiting, to engage in the other deadly sins in this time,

as some of the great Allamah of the early period of this Alma used

to say that to break one of those commandments is also to break the

fast.

So Fianna theory Rahmatullahi allait, one of the great Imams of

the tablet ain used to say this was really part of his book, a

rebirth of pseudo Siyam

backbiting, bricks are fast.

In other words, if you sitting around and looking at your clock

and waiting for the sun to go down and you're gossiping about

somebody, you've already broken your fast. That was his position.

Now that's too shady, too harsh. Religion is merciful. And Allah

subhanaw taala overlooks formally these things. But still there is

an inward breach of courtesy with the Creator in the sacred time

when things happen come from our tongues in particular

that are inappropriate to somebody who is in the quasar angelic state

of maintaining the fast. So what we find is that in this time of

greater focus of greater spiritual attentiveness, nowadays, you might

say, mindfulness, we have this

possibility of using the senses in a pure way.

It's often the case that when distractions are removed, we

become more in the space we're more aware, not only of time, but

of place and our focus on nature can be improved. And also because

nature is something that is not egotistic it's the pure creation

of God and contemplating it uplifts us and enables us and this

is our Quranic mandate and the believer always longs to get away

from the smoky city with all of the drug dealers and the

capitalistic

competition and introverted nature. That's a sign of the

sincerity of one's one's belief that when you are surrounded by

nature and nature speaks to you with its Lisanna Aloha

These are the signs that I feel are dark on the horizons, that the

nourishment that that brings to the soul is increased. That we

learn more through the contemplation of the mute witness

of the beauty, the order and the symmetry of creation. And this is

brought by our traditions of art and architecture into the physical

architectonic space.

So Islamic art and architecture focus very much on looking beneath

the surface of nature to the order that lies beneath which bespeaks

the divine order. So, the arabesque, so tessellation. So

vegetal motifs remind us of this inherent aristocratic human

nobility conundrum no Benny Adam, and this is one of the gifts of

the fasting month of Ramadan for those who choose to open their

spiritual eyes during this time, it's a time of tremendous

spiritual recharging and reconfiguration according to,

according to the fitrah the way that we're supposed to be.

And then when this happens, we find the divine presence and the

unique aspect of fasting amongst all of the different forms of tart

obedience that we have is that there is a particular

aspect of fasting that connects us directly to the divine. And this

seems paradoxical, isn't that what the prayer does? Isn't that what

the Hajj does? I bother is a connection with the Divine. But in

the case of fasting, there is something that is inward because

the fast is invisible. Nobody really knows if you're fasting or

not. People know if you're praying or not, if you say oh five prayers

in the mosque but fasting, who knows there is a degree of inner

discipline and wholesomeness and sincerity, that we find during the

fasting month it is between us and our Creator.

So we find interesting Hadith woodsy, and the Hadith sconces

tend to speak about large global principles and this is a Hadith

narrated by Imam Bukhari. On the authority of Abu Hurayrah Radi

Allahu

Allah rasool Allah He sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a call, call

Allahu Allah azza wa jal co lo homily Binney, Adam Illa Illa cin,

for in the holy war enter HDB

every action performed by every son of Adam is for him, except

fasting which is for me and I will reward him.

Again, it seems paradoxical, because do we not expect reward

for every positive thing that we engage in? Is this not part of the

nature of the religious life? Certainly, this is how it happens.

That where you have this sincere action, this directness,

that where you have the

direct connectedness between the human hearts of the fasting, ego,

suppressed human being relating directly to the Divine, and

recognizing our dependence on the divine, that you have the reward

given as it were directly that there is a direct connection

between the fasting person this person and this is because the

shayateen are chained up, because the ego is subdued and therefore

rather than just going through the motions, there is a reality of

being present in sacred time, surrounded by the symmetries of

nature and reconnected in this fluttery way with the Creator.

Another Hadith that says the same kind of thing

called fascinating be actually and thoroughly her Elissa by Marathi.

ilus yearn for in the holy war energy.

Every action is requited tenfold up to 700 fold except for fasting.

Because fasting is mine, I shall reward it.

It has the Hadith not already said you will be rewarded according to

these

proportions. It is because in fasting there is the principle of

sober holding the hand back from stupid pleasures restraining the

tongue, the gaze, the other aspects that get us into such

distracted trouble throughout our lives that are the cause of the

all the sufferings of humanity and you're back in this Fitri self

contained space of suburb

and a soul Nashville suburb. The hadith says in Timothy, that the

fast is half of sober

and somber is the essence of spirituality. Not just going

through the motions of religion and hoping for brownie points in

heaven but instead self restraint, self discipline, sincere

brokenness, in Kisara. In facing the divine,

that is where real religion begins is not self important. strutting

up to the front row of the mosque and knocking off your records and

wondering who's looking this has nothing to do

with religion really, this is just another other worldly activity.

And we all have to work so hard to make it a bad rather than harder.

But in the case of fasting when nobody's looking, you're taking

rest or you're being poor and somewhere or you're at work and

nobody's looking and nobody's know, there is an element there

that is directly connected to the Divine, and where the demonic in

us is genuinely subdued and where the demons leave our metabolism.

The principles of light will come in,

in the shaitana Yejide Fibonacci add an image or a dent. For

DiCicco majority, he builds your, the shaytaan flows in the son of

Adam, along with the veins and arteries, so limit those courses

with hunger.

If we're full, and we have a sugar rush, the emotions come more

easily when were broken with hunger. There is the possibility

of humility, which is the basis of the religious life because to puff

yourself up before the Divine is the end of your religious life and

your pretension. To be a Muslim Humility is the essence of

everything. How yet is the nature of the true believer. So this is

modesty because pride is God's alone, pride. Kibera, the worst of

this deadly sins, because it cannot coexist with the fear of

God. The others can, we can be hypocritical but if you're really

puffed up with pride, and you think you're some big shots,

sitting behind the wheel of your new 500 series, Mercedes and

you're wondering what people are thinking about you and full of

pride like around her men, well, you have nothing to do with

religion really, because you're competing with the divine who

alone is Al Kabir.

So in KSR towards humility, this kind of shrinking of our pompous

selves that happens in Ramadan is precisely about the enlarging and

the liberation of the Spirit. This is exactly what all of these

beautiful Hadith mean of that is what it is for the shayateen

themselves who normally have such mastery over us to be chained up

with the Hadith says stand up

to the reward is not some kind of automatic reflex stand up and make

use of this time. Allah has given you these beautiful a birders and

this context, this space in which to purify yourself and address

him, he has made it as easy as possible for you, but you need to

make the effort yourself to make it a reality rather than just an

outward form. So may Allah subhanaw taala accept this fasting

month from us and make it a month in which we permanently step up,

in which we become more truly Muslim inwardly as well as

outwardly, in which we become delightful neighbors to others, in

which would become truly allows hola fat, representatives of

humility and self blame rather than representatives of puffed up

outraged pride and self vindication. ammini Rommel Alameen

Baraka low FICO will affirm income was salam or aleikum wa

rahmatullah wa barakato. Cambridge Muslim College, training the next

generation of Muslim thinkers