Abdal Hakim Murad – Connecting to Fitrah
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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
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rahmatullah wa barakato. Cambridge Muslim College, training the next
generation of Muslim thinkers