Abdal Hakim Murad – Witnessing Ramadan Moments 4
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the transformation of Islam as a source of spiritual advances and the importance of fasting during busy days. It emphasizes the importance of witnessing during busy days to become aware of the potential for human experience and finding one's own happiness. The transformation is a result of transformation of one's lower self into a natural evolution and experiencing spiritual expression.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al Hamdulillah Robben Alameen wa
salatu salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad in while early he was off
the edge marine
moving through the month of fasting and the end is in sight.
And we consider where we have been the journey that we have taken the
landscape which we have crossed the highs, the lows, the difficult
times the dry times the times of feasting, it's always time of 12
year Halloween
transformation.
And we consider also
and this is what I'd like to focus on today.
The message of Ramadan
was the message of Ramadan.
With all of the other obligations of the religion, you can actually
point to it and say There it is.
You can say there is the prayer of Islam What a magnificent thing
hasn't changed since the beginnings of the religion and
everybody's amazed because who else follows the form of worship
set by the founder of their religion, only the Muslims
the cat you can point to it people actually putting money in the tin
and chat Allah will remember the cattle fitter this year.
The Hajj again, spectacular. There is certain visual amazingness
about these pillars. Ramadan, well, it has a certain festive
social aspect in many Muslim places.
But you can't actually take a photograph of somebody fasting.
Not really very indicative because fasting is not doing things.
Inwardly it can be all kinds of spiritual advances. But those two
are not exactly photogenic.
So let's consider if we can use all of these forms of a bed for
Dawa
and Dawa is the only justification really for us living as minorities
in the Western world. But it's a high calling prophetic calling.
How can we think about the tab leave the Dawa? The conveyance on
the basis of fasting.
So much of Islam is visually stunning.
And so much of it is evidently transformative.
But Ramadan, how do you show Ramadan to somebody?
Well, what we usually do is say to the local vicar, the interfaith
group, why don't you fast a day with us this year
to get a feel for it. But they didn't really get a feel for it.
They just go hungry for a bit and thirsty, but it's not the same
thing. It's just to kind of diet, they may experience it as that.
And there are people whose journey to Islam was slow. And I remember
in particular, and motorhome dennis johnson Davis, who was a
student here in Cambridge,
a long time ago in the time of Professor Nicholson, so that must
have been the 1930s. We died only about five years ago, he had his
supervisions with Nicholson on Arabic and Persian poetry, just a
couple of 100 yards from us here and CMC.
And he became
the greatest translator of Arabic fiction, modern Arabic novels. You
might think, well, it's a strange thing to spend your life on why
not the great classical literature of Islam, but this was what he was
good at. And he was very good at it. And it was on the basis of his
translation of Najib muffles is middag Ali that Najib muffles got
the Nobel Prize. So up there in the world of translators,
and he lived in the Arab world and in Cairo in Marrakech, but for
years and years, he wasn't a Muslim. But he used to fast in
Ramadan.
And we will tell him, Dennis, you're wasting your time, really.
You're not going to get the ADGER and you're not going to experience
the the inner meaning of this, but you just liked Arab culture and
wanted to go along with it. Eventually. You came to Islam, but
I'm not sure that it was the experience of fasting or his sort
of conformity to the fast that did that.
But nonetheless, in the month, how can we express the amazingness of
this a Bader to our neighbors who as it were a fasting from
religion,
and they know that they're missing something, and everybody is
looking for something? Because it's been religion, ritual belief
and transcendence, belief in life after death in
A huge variety of forms since the beginning of the human species and
it's part of what we need metabolically it's part of us.
So if we have a mosque in Ramadan, and
we need to be
that our conscious, well obviously driving people away is not a good
idea. He says Allah has led to a slam bear Shiro wala tuna Firo
give people good news and don't drive them away.
Now if everybody is after the tearaway coming noisily laughing
out into the streets, slamming the doors of their fancy cars and not
attending to the needs of neighbors who are trying to speak
that 10 fear that's driving people away and this can be a problem and
often is a problem for neighbors who are not Muslims but are living
near a mosque Ramadan is often a difficult time. We really need to
be aware of that. And most committees need to make sure that
they tell people to
a god they will own about Well, Jerry Julep, the near and the far
neighbor, according to many of the alarm, that means the Muslim
neighbor and the non Muslim neighbor, they also have a hawk.
And this is in many Hadith, but that's for another, another talk.
But how can we get beyond that and turn this into a time of Tubridy
of and Dawa.
Renewed This is so central.
Allah says Allah Dena, your belly Horner reseller, the reseller
Tila, those who convey the messages of god
these are amongst the righteous
Yeah, Johanna be your inner Alyssa NACA Shahidan or Mobis. Sharon,
when are the raw WADA iron Elon law he isn't he was urogen Mooney
Iran.
Oh prophet is speaking to the Holy Prophet alayhi salatu salam, we
have sent you as a witness, and as the bearer of good news, and of a
warning, and as a summoner to Allah with his permission,
and as a shining light. Now that's complex verse and much can be
unpicked, what is the relationship of the Prophet as witness to the
prophet as a bearer of good news and a warning? Some people will
say religions, but after all of the tably of his good news and a
warning so what's this shahid? How is he witness to mind kind and how
the believers to be shahada alumnus, this idea of the faithful
Muslim as Shahid, as witness is really important
in everything that we do, we are living out in an embodied form and
our a buyer does often very body embedded, are saying, Bella
Shaheed No, yes, we bear witness, we began as witnesses Shahadat, to
the divine in that time before time began the day of Alice to be
robbed become, we said, Yes, we bear witness we testify.
So the showerhead, which is one of these prophetic names,
is the one who, in everything in his or her life testifies to the
reality that God alone has true being and everything else is
perspectival and temporary,
which is a radical perspective, the de absolute tising of matter,
time and space. These are both Death contingent, they're not the
source of anything they are caused, they're not a cause. So we
bear witness to that in our various forms of iboga. And of
course in the hajj. I bothered to honor the form of worship, which
is the whole life.
We remember the day of Bala Shahina when we kiss or make our
st. Lamb to the Blackstone, which is Allah's right hand on Earth,
and that's one of the meanings of the Hajj that we get together
again, as believing Benny Adam to say, Bella Shaheed now, yes, we
bear witness, which is part of the meaning of the Tobia.
And in the prayer, we have the witnessing prayer, which is called
the Tisha hood, at the end of the prayer,
and that's an important component of the prayer which is also
witnessing.
In the first pillar itself, it's called the witnessing the
testimony of faith, the Shahada. It is the witness.
There's a cat is a testimony to our belief that nobody really
knows if you've paid it or not or what your intention was. It's an
inner witnessing, to your sense of responsibility to others, and your
awareness that your money is only ever temporarily in your charge
and so on.
So in what sense is the fast then part of this temporary
If that were in this broad sense of witnessing, what does it
witness to?
Many things, non Muslims are often taken aback by the fast because it
seems pretty hardcore.
It is. People go through various detox diets nowadays and fasting
as a kind of standard thing, even amongst quite secular people in
the world of self care, and natural remedies. And we know that
what they call intermittent fasting is good for us. No food,
no drink for a particular period of time, it does have verifiable
medical consequences. So you can use that as a way of witnessing.
That's part of being a showerhead in Ramadan saying, Well, we really
do this for a month, a lunar month,
cold turkey from dawn, till dusk, Nil by mouth, very healthy, and we
feel kind of great. At the end of it, we really feel different. We
really feel like something in the mind body composite has shifted
and become much more healthy. As a result of this month month of
Ramadan. It has a therapeutic value.
So that's one way in which we can be shahada, Ireland as witnesses
to mankind in this month of Ramadan.
But sometimes the mere fact of this extraordinary thing kind of
attracts people's attention.
Because they wonder why is it that you are going through this
austerity,
so footballers, Premier League footballers?
Like Paul Pogba, or
mo Salah and so forth, there's plenty of observant Muslims in the
Premier League teams, often fast in Ramadan, even in the summer
when they're playing matches, not always as roxo, which seems to me
to be valid, but sometimes they fast. And there's always a flurry
of media attention. It was the same during the London Olympics,
over 1000 of the athletes who are actually fasting in Ramadan and
continue to fast during the Olympics.
That gets people curious people want to know what is this and
there you can give them the most fundamental message of religion,
not just monotheistic religion, but all religion, which is that we
become ourselves when we transcend ourselves,
not just about self knowledge. It's about the self knowledge that
flows from a wisdom about ourselves that is only possible
when we have fought with ourselves.
It's only when we say no to the cravings of the lower self that we
become ourselves really,
in the technical language, when we moved from NIFS Amara to Neff
Silla, Whammer the self that is always commanding us to indulge,
head for the fridge. Look at this improper image. Say this to such
and such a person whatever then after dictates a motto it's like
an Emir is a prince this ego is in charge, wants to tell us what to
do and make us it slaves.
Moving to the stage of knifes, low Whammer
oxymoron. Enough's a low Amma taco Quranic expression, just as Amara
is an emphatic form, constantly commanding, the low Whammer is
also a constant form, constantly blaming. In other words, the
conscience is there. We know that we're indulging ourselves and that
we do 1000 things that we shouldn't really do in every 24
hour period. But at least we're aware of that.
And this is a precious message. All the world religions saying,
Happiness comes about through renouncing immediate and sense you
all forms of a moral personal gratification in the short term.
It's about future planning.
But it's about substituting the kind of sickened surfeit that
comes about through indulgence or drunkenness, overeating, whatever
it might be, replacing that false happiness with a true happiness
that comes about when we know that the roof is Amara.
The higher potential within us is commanding, and is being obeyed
the roof which has been Amory, Robbie, which is of the command of
my Lord.
That's a different kind of happiness. And that's a true
happiness. The happiness that comes about through renouncing
something that should be renounced is a true and deeper happiness
than the happiness that comes about to saying, Oh, well, the
devil Justice wants I'm feeling low. Let me do X Y Zed. I know
it's not right, but I need to cheer myself up, which is never a
true happiness, and which immediately vanishes into nothing.
As with dunya indulgence, I've had a hard day
I'll treat myself to a new car.
Within a week, you're kind of used to it and worried about the
insurance and structuring it and it becomes just another part of
your world of worry. And the initial excitement probably didn't
last beyond the day when you had to take the plastic off the seats
and it just became a car and you started worrying about it. So
Dunia always offers us hurrah, beguiling but false happiness. And
the true happiness comes about when we oppose the lower self.
When as a member of Junaid says we stab with a knife of renunciation,
the lower self and weighed up to our knees in the blood of the
lower self in that Mujahidin and that reorder. And in that victory,
or even in a rare victory, there was a certain happiness and
serenity that ensues. And we can look back on that moment as an
honorable moment when our humanity was real, rather than animality.
Ramadan gives us that it's really spiritual, all of the five pillars
are really spiritual, this is spiritual, inner kind of SoloQ
way.
In that it takes us from the instant gratification of random,
immediate urges to something more considered, and to the state at
least of knifes, low wormer.
Now the highest stage enough somewhat my inner the soul at
peace, which has mentioned elsewhere in the Quran. That's
rare, that's hard to achieve, where you are completely at ease
with whatever Allah is doing with yourself at a particular time and
you are in a state of Shakur and Hamed constantly.
Because you can see that whatever is happening, is what God is
making happen.
And then you're really at peace. That's a person who doesn't suffer
from stress, or anxiety, or panic attacks because everything is what
the beloved has determined it to be. That's a high degree. But at
least taking the step towards it towards that real happiness and
away from pseudo happiness to sick leanness of over indulgence is the
vital thing that puts us on the path of humanity, to recovering
the Amana to recovering the remembrance of balharshah hidden
and testifying to the divine
in what we do, and in our lifestyle, that we're people who
don't just go through the motions of religion, but inwardly aren't
changed very much and perhaps rotten people underneath, but are
actually changed inwardly by these practices. So as Ramadan draws to
an end, we really have to look into our soils and interrogate
ourselves and say, Are you better now? Allah has given you this
opportunity to transcend these lower cravings. Are you a more
serene and a better person? Are you just hungry, thirsty, cross
impatient? Hadith says, many a person who fast gains nothing from
his fast except hunger and thirst. That's a big sacrifice for just
being hungry and thirsty. Now, we need to see the extent to which we
have moved from the state of knifes Amara to the state of
knifes law, wham. And we get a sense that the destination of this
path is actually happiness, that the austerity of the fast leads to
the delight of the Iftar and also to the delight of Hamed and Shaka
and being content with Allah's decree. So in sha Allah, this has
been an educational Ramadan for us, a Ramadan that has brought us
together in better and Taqwa in goodness, and in fearing Allah.
And in its purpose, which is La La come to tackle that you might be
piously aware of him, and has helped us in our SoloQ in our
wayfaring back to our divine source, so that we can start to
travel back to him even before the inevitable mod which is after
death, we can start to travel back to him and become Shahadat
witnesses to God, to people who really want some spiritual form,
and really want some kind of belief, but are living in a
spiritual desert and a fasting from everything that human beings
truly need from the spiritual nourishment, without which our
souls are always in a state of grief and deprivation. So may
Allah subhanaw taala help us to be joyful in him, help us to
experience the sweetness of overcoming the lower self after
the month is over to keep us as people who defy the knifes Amara,
the lowest self and people who are either in that state of contrition
or in Sharla moving towards the beautiful liberated state of being
completely in charge of our impulses, by the Grace of Allah
subhanaw taala and that is
1000 Azim that is the great triumph, and when we're at that
degree, of course will be shahada, Allah nurse because it will be
such amazing people who doesn't love somebody who doesn't care
about his own passions and preferences and reputation and
desire. Who doesn't love a selfless person?
That's how we are called to be his Alma should be shahada Allah nurse
because of its self transcendence. So may Allah subhanaw taala grant
us these things and accept our fast and bring us safely to the
aid and to the next Ramadan and by his leave to the Ramadan switch
had to follow and unite us all in whatever is most pleasing to Him
and make this a time for the liberation of the spirit and the
chaining of the devil and of the lower self in sha Allah in the
hall. Allah Delica la Kadir will be regedit it will be a jab at JD
Baraka Alfie Kohn will perform income was salam or aleikum wa
rahmatullah wa barakato.