Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #11 The excluded, the marginalized

Peace be with you.

We have reached the 11th day of Ramadan,

and we are fasting and we are thinking

about how do we repair

what is broken around us. We talked about

our self, and we have to deal with

our own self, our own heart, our own

intimate life, inter intimate spiritual journey. And at

the same time, we have to deal with

our father, our mother, our family,

and the neighborhood. Our neighbors

are important.

Yet when we are dealing with this, we

understand that

as much as we have to repair

within,

concentric circles

ourself, our family, our neighborhood.

We deal with a society where we find,

people who are treated in a way which

is as if they have no right,

no right at all. They are excluded,

excluded people. They are marginalized,

and the society is creating

a system,

a reality where

what we are saying about our common humanity,

saying we have the reign the same dignity,

we have the same rights, we have the

same,

hopes for ourselves and for the future. When

it comes to the society, we see

exclusion,

marginalization,

and people dealing with no right within our

society,

and we are not responsible. We come into

this world, and we see what is around

us, and it's as if we are powerless.

Yet we have a responsibility.

As much as we have to repair for

ourself, we have to repair

the gap between what

humanity is

equal dignity

and what society

is bringing, is producing,

where you have people having no dignity and

treated in a way which is unacceptable.

So we have to repair. And it's not

because we are not responsible of what is

happening around us that we are not and

we should not be involved within the process.

We have to be involved within the process

and to try to rectify,

to repair, to fix, to mend what was

broken by

this,

our society

and this human involvement in the organization of

the social fabric.

Our responsibility

to do this

within ourselves, as I said. But now we

have to deal with people we don't know,

that people who are not even acknowledged by

the society. And remember what happened with Halef

al Fudul, with the prophet, peace be upon

him,

when they decided that even the stranger

coming within the community

should be treated in the same way. Saying

what?

Yes. We are members of tribes, and we

are and we have our rights within.

Yet if somebody is coming

and have and has no rights

within the tribes. He has the right of

being a human being, and they have to

deal with it. And this is where the

prophet, peace be upon him, peace be upon

him, when he was 12, he attended the

meeting. And later, he said, I will stick

to this principle

of justice,

meaning our responsibility

is to change the world with the people

who are unknown

within our societies, but they are known to

our consciousness

and our dignity. This is what we have

to do day in, day out. Don't forget

to tell the people you love that you

love them. Life is fragile.