Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #02 To be

Peace be with you.

We talked yesterday

about this,

notion

of repair,

what we need to understand when it comes

to our own self. When we got

and we get this consciousness

with our own heart, with our own destiny,

with our own relationship to God and relationship

to ourself.

And at that point, we understand that, yes,

yesterday, we were

an innocent baby, and with time, things are

changing. And with our consciousness,

we understand that we have to deal with

our own self, and it's not always easy

to deal with our,

weaknesses, to deal with our,

failures,

with our

setbacks, and even with our mistakes

during our life.

And the point is that when we deal

with

many of the scholars and the olema, when

we are talking to them,

they are right with one thing. They are

telling us this is the way. This is

where you have to go, and this is

what you have to do. You have to

pray. You have to fast. You have to

give zakat

and so on and so forth. We know

that we have to do all this. The

point here, and this is what is missing

very often in the spiritual discourses that we

have,

is not only to know where we have

to go, because this could be obvious,

but what are we bearing?

What is the burden that is on our

shoulders, and in which way we have to

deal

with it, and no one on earth can

know it except God

and yourself.

Because this is

something that you have to deal, and you

have it in the Quran when you have

to come. And and when the the weight

are going to be heavy,

they are going to be light. This is

what we have to deal with during our

life. So, yes,

know

the way,

know

where we you are heading, but know also

what we you are holding,

what you are bearing in your heart and

in your life. Meaning that

you have to deal with your relationship with

god, but your relationship with your parents,

the legacy that you are,

holding, the legacy that you are,

bearing, the legacy that is,

in fact, educating you and helping you and

sometimes being a herder, being an obstacle in

the way you are going to deal with,

the Islamic principles and with your own faith.

So

when you deal with this, you understand that,

as I said, life is a pilgrimage. And

during this pilgrimage, you come back to yourself.

And with this awareness, this consciousness,

you are dealing with yourself and you know,

okay.

This is where I have to go. I

know that god is expecting from me to

follow this path, but at the same times,

he's expecting

from me. If I want to deal with,

the principles,

if I want to be faithful to the

rituals, if I want to

be an a man or woman of faith,

I have to deal with

everything

which is an

obstacle between me

and

my heart,

me and the purity

of my life. And at one point,

if you know where you are heading,

you should start

to be,

aware,

to be and to have this kind of

lucidity

with your own

personal,

intimacy, your own heart in order to repair

what should be repaired and fixed

today, tomorrow,

and for the time to come. Don't forget

to tell the people you love that you

love them. Life is fragile.