Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #09 To listen

Peace be with you.

We talked about,

being and these were the first

8 chronicles.

And then we

came to a new chapter, so to speak,

which has to do with,

listening. And yesterday, we talked about

listening to ourself.

Beyond listening to ourself, which is essential in

our spiritual journey,

It's also important to listen to the people

around us,

to our parents, our father,

our

mother, our wife, our husband, our children, and

even the people around us within the community

to listen

to listen to what they are experiencing.

And this is

quite difficult

to achieve when we are deep in our

understanding of what does it mean to listen

to somebody.

To listen to somebody is not always

to listen to what she or he has

to say or he or she is saying

from our perspective,

from our viewpoint,

but from where they are

living their life and experiencing

their own reality.

It means that you have to

decentralize

yourself, to decenter yourself

from this reality in order to be able

to look at them the way they are.

It's very difficult when you have to do

this with your own father, with your own

mother, with your,

children, with the people that you love, your

wife, your husband, because you are always at

the center. I am listening

decenter yourself, say, okay.

Listen

to them from where they are

with their life, their past, their wounds,

and try to understand in which way.

By understanding them, you are going to repair

the reality of this relationship.

Because to repair is not only to repair

from where you are,

is also to understand. And this is the

very meaning of empathy.

Empathy has to do with okay. I'm going

to be.

I'm trying to understand from where you are

what you're experiencing.

And when you are used to

judge or talk to people

out of their function or their role in

your life. You are the center,

but to listen is sometimes to

avoid being the center and to come to

the reality of the others

in order to

understand

what

is

their reality

and in which way they are trying to

do their best.

And when you understand this, you understand that

to listen

means this real

spiritual conversion

where

you are not at the center

and you are not the parameter

of what is happening to others, but you

have to try to understand from where they

are. Try to do this with your father.

Try to do this with your your mother,

your wife, your husband, your children, and you'll

see that,

with this type of listening to them,

you avoid being judgmental,

and then you understand that

it might be that I don't know

everything about

what they are experiencing

and that I may, from this reality,

try to understand

better,

deeper who they are

and what they are trying to do with

their own self. And with this is the

very meaning of repairing,

is the very meaning of loving,

is the very meaning of understanding.

Don't forget to tell the people you love

that you love them. Life is fragile.