Zaynab Ansari – The Ultimate Expression of Love for ‘Ramadan Fasting for Love’
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The importance of fasting during the holy month is emphasized, as it is necessary for achieving divine love. The speaker advises avoiding distraction and maintaining a healthy relationship with the divine word. Visitors are encouraged to recite the Quran with understanding and penetration, practicing exercises to increase in love for Allah Subhan Ali, and practicing the exercises to increase in love for Allah Subhan Ali. The speaker suggests learning about the Quran in a practical and sustainable way to increase in love for Allah Subhan Ali.
AI: Summary ©
My name is Zaynah Bandsari and I'm very
happy to be here in the presence of
my teachers
and fellow seekers of knowledge to share a
few reflections on how to,
insha'Allah,
increase the presence
of divine love
during this very sacred and blessed month. One
thing that occurred to me,
going through,
my notes and thinking back about what my
teacher shared with me about Ramadan, is that
the whole,
experience of fasting from its start to its
finish is about love.
It's about expressing in a very sort of,
subtle way
to Allah
to God be exalted, that one
is committed
to the values
that are enshrined
in the book of God,
which is God's final revelation to humanity, the
Quran, and also the tradition of the beloved
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. This is what fasting
is about. When I say it's a subtle
expression,
that goes back to a hadith of the
prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, where
he said that
fasting is something that
it's an act of worship that Allah
himself
rewards.
That the reward for that act of worship
comes solely from,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because it's an act
of worship. It doesn't really involve,
anyone
else. It's not, for example, like congregational prayer
where where we stand shoulder to shoulder and
pray.
It's it's a very different,
act of worship. It's not visible
in a public way like the prayer is.
It's internal.
One does not necessarily know that you're fasting
unless you disclose that. Right? Or that person
is knowledgeable
about the month of Ramadan, for example. You
don't know that a person is necessarily fasting.
You might assume that they're skipping,
skipping a meal.
So, there is this very subtle aspect of
of Ramadan.
But at the same time,
there's this aspect of Ramadan that is,
it's it's physically
challenging and rigorous.
So for about 29 to 30 days for
an entire month, from Fajr to Maghrib. Right?
For these 16 hour days. You're abstaining from
that which is normally lawful, food and drink,
and intimacy with one's spouse.
And I think for the human being to
be able to desist from these pleasures,
to be able to discipline the nafs, and
and sort of break the desires of the
lower self,
is the ultimate expression,
of one's love for God, and I think
is the
paramount way
of bringing divine love into one's life, because
there's no way
that you can go through something that is
as grueling
as fasting in the summer heat for 16
hour days,
unless
it's about love, unless you love God and
God loves you.
Because when Allah Ta'ala, when God the Exalted,
places in you the ability to fast, that's
a gift.
I was reviewing a lesson,
from
a special course that Habiba'ali
in Yemen
taught.
It was called journey to Allah, and it
was a series of lessons on spirituality
for women, and I
co taught or TA'd
that course
some years ago with Sheikh Abdul Karim Yahya.
And
one of the things that came out of
that class, it was a very beautiful and
inspiring class, is that
there's something called
alba'is,
and it's an impulse or a motivation,
an aspiration
that God creates in the believer
to seek his presence,
to turn towards him, to repent,
to be mindful
of God's
assistance,
and to be mindful and aware of divine
facilitation
for all the favors in your life.
The desire to fast
is one of those
divine facilitation.
It is something that Allah Ta'ala creates in
the believer and the believer responds to it
with all his or her conviction, with all
his or her love, with all his or
her will
to please their their lord. Because, again,
what you're doing when you fast is you're
countering
your base and primal instincts
of wanting to eat, of wanting to drink,
of wanting to sort of engage in sort
of idle conversation,
you know, you're going against your instinct,
for intimacy. Those are all primal instincts that
reside in the human being.
But fasting is 1 month out of the
year
where you,
with the aid of Allah,
can leverage your strength and your willpower and
your determination
to rise above
these primal instincts
to a place of
spiritual
aspiration and transcendence,
god willing.
And
there is a sense of,
a sort of lightening of the spirit.
You've noticed that when you're really hungry, you
can feel light headed,
but that's the physical hunger aspect.
There's also the fact that you feel a
certain lightness,
a spiritual
lightness, like a weight has been lifted off
of your chest
that you can orient yourself towards the divine
and away from, for a while,
away from these mundane concerns,
of
of kind of scavenging for food. We spend
a lot of time,
much of our time eating,
much of our time thinking about food, much
of our time acquiring it, preparing it, cleaning
up after we're done, eating just to start
the cycle all over again. So think for
a second, you're leaving something that you love,
your food and your drink
for something and for someone
that you love more,
Allah Ta'ala, God be exalted. I mean that's
a really beautiful thing.
And you know one of my teachers in
Damascus, Masha'Allah,
actually gave us a special lesson on food
and how we can either use food as
a sort of means
through which to discipline ourselves
and sustain ourselves for that which is good
and reach Allah Ta'ala
or conversely it can become a distraction.
So one of the things that I want
to get across to you is that
food shouldn't be a distraction during the month
of Ramadan. Remember, it's about leaving that that's
beloved to us, food and drink for that
which is more beloved.
Drawing closer to Allah
by abstaining
from those things that normally he's made lawful,
but which during the hours of fasting are
now,
unlawful. Right?
So just just think about that. So,
we want to make sure that we spend
some time planning
our suhoor and our iftar, but not an
inordinate amount of time focusing on what we're
going to consume physically. It's much more important
to think about how we're going to sustain
ourselves spiritually
during the month of Ramadan.
So my,
so while my my first piece of advice
to you is, you know, think about how
you can leave off that which you love
for that which you love more.
Right? And how we can discipline,
the nafs and those base desires
to draw closer to the level of Allah
Ta'ala.
Now my second piece of advice, and this
is to myself first, obviously, is that
we must inculcate,
and implement, establish
a relationship, a living relationship with the divine
word.
And that's because we know Ramadan, for example,
has this very,
special quality, this distinguishing
quality of being the month in which
the holy book was first revealed. I mean,
that is really, really powerful.
So Ramadan
is the month of Laylatul Qadr. It's the
month in which,
you know, that's described
by God himself as being better than a
1000 months.
And
to really kinda get ourselves
into the position where we can think about
seeking
the spiritual
secrets
of the night of power, it's important to
begin with the basics.
Begin at the beginning
with
if we want
Allah to add it to hear us, we
need to hear him.
So we seek out His guidance by opening
up the Quran.
So try to make some,
tangible goals for yourself.
I, for example, am going to renew my
memorization of Surat Al Baqarah,
the second chapter of the Quran.
That's something that's really doable during the month
of Ramadan.
Think about how many days you have,
divide the number of days of fasting by
the number of ayaat that you want to
commit to memory,
and start doing that. You know, another thing
that you can do, maybe you want to
refresh your memorization of the 30th juz of
Quran,
juz'amma.
Right? The final section of a Quran.
The best way you can do that is
to actually recite that during your tarawih or
your or your tahajjud prayer, for example.
So,
focus on all the components
of Quran study, your memorization,
your recitation.
There are a lot of benefits just in
Tilawat and Quran,
where studying the Quran with proper pronunciation, tajweed,
and reflection.
Sister, Sheikha Zainab, Alwani
told me that one of the best ways
to approach the study of the Quran is
to approach it,
thematically.
So look up
take your Quran, go to the index or
table of contents, however your your Quran is
organized,
and
look up the topics you're interested in. For
example, you're interested in all the Qur'anic ayat
that talk about the Earth or talk about
water,
right?
So, and write,
record them down in a special journal for
that purpose,
and that way it kind of helps you
to thematically
grasp the subject matter of the Quran. And
this is important because along with your memorization
and recitation of the Quran, you want to
understand the meanings of the Quran.
You want to read the Quran with understanding
and penetration,
insha'Allah.
And, you know, the way to do this
is to read the commentaries
and to take a class. Alhamdulillah, there are
a lot of really good tafsir classes,
probably in your locality.
And if not in your immediate masjid or
Islamic center
or in a private home, then then perhaps
look into
classes online, for example, Seeker's Guidance.
As you know, Seeker's Guidance has an excellent
initiative, Knowledge Without Barriers, where you can,
take classes in the core Islamic subjects for
free. Right? So resolve to memorize the Quran
this month as much as you can.
Resolve to recite the Quran on a regular
basis, both inside and outside of your prayer.
And resolve to read the Quran with understanding.
You know, one of the things that,
my husband shared with me, you know, Abu
Salah,
was blessed to memorize the Quran,
as a young child,
in the Quran school in our metro area.
And one of the things he says looking
back is it was a great experience, but
he wishes that there had been an equal
emphasis on reading the Quran with understanding.
So this might be your opportunity, inshallah, to
sign up for some Arabic classes, to do
what you need to do, to learn how
to understand the Quran in its original language.
And, you know, I'm really,
I I really believe in in taking practical
steps,
you know,
towards
increasing in love for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You know, for some people,
drawing close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala might
happen in this one moment of epiphany
in which Allah Ta'ala places some something in
your heart and some kind of divine opening
happens. But for other people, it might take
days months
years
of study
and struggle and applying oneself.
So that's why I'm talking about memorizing, reciting,
and reading the Quran with with reflection and
understanding because those are practical ways
that you can increase in love for Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As, a line of poetry
that my teacher shared with me, how can
we possibly claim, lay claim to God's love
if we've abandoned
the reading
of his book?
So I have, a few recommendations
for you,
in terms of your, how to approach your
studies, your Qur'anic studies. One of the ways
to really benefit from your recitation of this
book of Allah, from Allah Ta'ala's final revelation
to us is to understand the etiquette
of handling the Quran, reading the Quran. So
I've got,
a book that I'd like to recommend called
Etiquette with the Quran.
And it is a translation
of, a book by Imam An Nawawi, Allah
Yerham,
and it's translated
by,
sheikh Musa Ferber. It's a really good book.
Right?
And
once you have that, Insha'Allah, another good book
to look at. And I especially recommend this
for people who are new Muslims
or refreshing your knowledge about
your way of life or you'd like to
learn about Islam and its foundational text,
this is doctor Ingrid Madsen's
The Story of the Quran, its History and
Place in Muslim Life, a very beautiful narrative
of the history
of this sacred text. And that's by doctor
Ingrid Madsen.
And then finally,
another great book that I stumbled upon,
is Understanding the Quran by Mohammed Abdel Halim.
He's also, a Quran translator. He has a
very good translation out there.
Understanding the Quran themes and style, and this
ties into
what Sheikh Hazayna Bawwani said about
being able to approach the Quran thematically.
It's very helpful,
in in approaching the Quran, especially from the
point of view of being comprehensive,
in your understanding of the Quran.
K?
So I just wanted to share these reading
recommendations with you.
My final piece of advice is that,
once you've, Insha'Allah,
set some goals for yourself
of, being regular in your memorization of Quran,
recitation of Quran,
understanding of the Quran,
in-depth,
try to tie what you're doing
with the Quran, with your your fast, like
the the physical aspect of your fast. Because
remember,
fasting
is is not just about
abstaining
from food and drink, but it's about taking
the act of abstention
and tying it to other aspects of your
life. So as much as part as possible,
let's try to erase the various compartments in
our lives and
tie everything together. Right?
So practically speaking, the more time you spend
studying and reading the Quran, insha'Allah, the less
time you have to worry about what other
people are doing or what so and so
said, you know, the less, you know, the
the more you keep yourself busy
with reflecting on this,
timeless message in the Quran,
you know, the less time we have to
worry about how hungry or how thirsty we
are.
So use your recitation of the Quran as
a way to try to
mitigate the difficult aspects of fasting.
Use your recitation as a way of transcending
the needs of the body,
the needs of the physical, and insha'Allah
to nourish and sustain
the spiritual.
I'm very happy to have had the opportunity
to share some of my teacher's advice with
you, and I really do pray
that Allah, ta'ala, God most high, blesses all
of us with,
a month of fasting that in which our
fasting is accepted, our our prayers are accepted,
our recitation of Quran is accepted,
our getting up at night is accepted, our
salawat upon the blessed prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, our zakat, salakat, all of these things,
Insha'Allah,
are accepted, and we can reap their benefits,
in the months years to come. Inshallahta'ala,
God willing. Thank you so much. Assalamu alaikum.
Warahmatullahi
ta'ala.