Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #28 Rituals

Peace be with you.

We talked about

acting and doing

and promoting the good out of our actions

within the world.

And as we understand it, it's very often

that we think about, oh, I have to

be generous. I have to share. I have

to give, and it's out of our goodwill.

Well, when we come back to

Al Quran or Sunnah, when we come back

to our tradition, and once again, this is

what we can find in all the spiritualities

and all the monotheistic traditions.

This has to be disciplined. And how do

you see and how do you understand that

this has to be disciplined and based on

principles and based on an ongoing process of

regulating

our days and our nights.

It's through the rituals.

In fact, what you are nurturing within, in

the way you are understanding

that you have to spread

good and to spread and to behave in

a good way. You the the the practices

and the rituals in your daily life

are reminding you of the essential

dimension of giving.

In fact,

when you have to pray, you understand that,

when you have to pray in community, this

has 25

times more importance than when you pray alone.

So

you understand that this praying in community is

not only that you are transforming yourself, you

come back to yourself, but when you talk

to God, you talk

with we.

We are asking you, and we are worshiping

you,

we, me, and all my brothers and sisters

in Islam.

So this dimension of, being involved is 5

times a day. You have to come back

and to have this sense of community.

And when you give the zakat, it's exactly

the same. Zakat is a way you purify

your heart and you purify your money,

your goods, everything that you have. It's a

double process

based on your understanding that you're connected with

the community, and this has to be

done in a very strict way. It's demanding.

And when you fast, as we are fasting

now, we understand that we're preventing

ourselves

from eating and drinking in order to come

close to God, but at the same times

to be very close

to the poor people, to the needy

people in Mesakine

who are part of our community. And in

doing so, we are repairing.

So every ritual,

it's about repairing

ourselves

and the world. And pilgrimages

once again come together and find the very

meaning of being equal before God and coming

as a community.

So our rituals

are the visible side,

disciplined with

consciousness

of what has to be done within ourselves

to repair

and within the the world to change and

to reform.

So

Islam is based on this, so you cannot

distinguish between this and that. And this is

the way we understand that

through our rituals

as practicing Muslims,

as people who are fasting,

we repair

our

unconsciousness

in order to reform

the world

with this deep, spiritual

consciousness,

this reverential

consciousness,

which is a taqwa,

which is the central dimension

of the way we are with God

and with ourselves.

Don't forget to tell the people you love

that you love them. Life is fragile.