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The essence of fasting

Posted on June 17, 2016December 4, 2019 by admin 28 Views

The essence of fasting

Ramadan is a month characterised by fasting and constant worhship, ibaadah. For the entire month, Muslims abstain from food and drink in order to please Allah.

But how many of us really understand the essence of fasting?

Fasting is not the mere abstention from food and drink. It is much deeper than that. Fasting affects the very core of our being; our soul. Allah has designed the month of Ramadan in such a manner that the spiritual uplifting gained from fasting is rewarding to the soul and body in this life and the hereafter.

Fasting is an obligation, as Allah commanded Muslims in the Holy Qur’an, {O you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may attain taqwa.} (Surah Al-Baqarah, Chapter 2, verse 183)

So, as believers of monotheism, we should abstain from food and drink as Allah has commanded us. However, as the continuation of the verse states, fasting helps believers to attain taqwah or God-consciousness. Thus, fasting of the stomach is not the only means of fasting, though it fulfils the basic condition for fasting. To attain taqwa, a believer should fast with all their limbs.

Fasting of the Heart:

The true fast can only be achieved if the heart is engaged in that which is pleasing to Allah. One’s heart should participate in the fast and it should abstain from corruptions, pride, and all that is evil. The believer’s heart should remain pure and sincere whilst enduring the ‘difficult’ conditions of lack of food and drink. They should fast from anger, impatience and frustration, all of which are emotions which could result from hunger and thirst. Among the signs of righteousness in Ramadan is that a fasting person remains calm, carries a smile, is gentle and maintains a good character.

Fasting of the Eyes:

The gaze was described by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as “an arrow from among the devil’s arrows.” (Ahmad) Thus, it is only natural that whilst fasting, a person’s gaze should be restrained. The eyes should fast from gazing freely at that which it is forbidden to look at. As Allah says in the Qur’an, {Tell the believers to lower their gaze…}(Surah An-Nur, Chapter 24, verse 30)

This is for both the men and the women, to lower their gaze. The reward for doing so is that Allah replaces it with a sweetness of strong faith.

Fasting of the Tongue:

The tongue can be one of the best parts of the body or the worst. If used for the remembrance of Allah it can bring heap loads of benefit. However, if used incorrectly it can be the cause of entering the Hellfire, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) told his companion, Mua’dh ibn Jabal, “Shall I show you what will gather for you all of that (good)? Mu’adh replied, “Of course!” He (peace be upon him) said, “Restrain this,” and he took hold of his tongue. Mua’dh asked, “O Messenger of Allah are we accountable for what we speak?” He (peace be upon him) replied that some people will enter Hellfire as a result of what their tongues reaped. (Tirmidhi) The tongue should fast from abusive language, cursing, gossiping, lying, backbiting, and all that will earn you nothing but sins. This Ramadan, save your tongue and voice from uttering sinful and idle talk and instead, recite the Book of Allah. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us, engage in phrases which are light on the tongue, heavy on the scales of our deeds on the Day of Judgment, and dear to The Most Merciful. Repeat phrases such as, “Glory be to Allah”, “All praise is to Allah,”, “Allah is the Greatest”.

I have only given a few examples of how the noble goals of fasting can be accomplished. The list of examples can go on. Each part of our body should fast from doing that which is forbidden and what is displeasing to Allah, so that we may attain taqwa, and draw closer to Allah.

Only when we fully engage ourselves in this respect can we realize and experience the true essence of fasting, and allow our souls to take full advantage of the spiritual treat that Ramadan truly is.

Article by: saudigazette.com.sa

Social wisdom in Hajj

Posted on February 19, 2016July 1, 2019 by admin 24 Views

Allah Has Created people to be different in their living; some are rich and some poor, some well-off, affluent and high-esteemed, and others indigent, miserable and astray in life. That is great wisdom decreed by Allah so that people would exchange work, cooperate with one another, and use one another to achieve their requirements and needs: the rich person spends his money, and the poor person exerts his effort in labor for remuneration. In confirmation of that, Allah Almighty Says (what means): {Do they distribute the Mercy of your Lord? It is We Who Have Apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of this world and Have Raised some of them above others in degrees [of rank] that they may make use of one another for service. But the Mercy of your Lord is better than whatever they accumulate.} [Quran 43:32]

Hajj as a shift against Racism:

Had the difference been limited to the exchange of benefits, it would have been good. But some rich people exalt themselves above the poor, and their arrogance produces hatred among the poor. On the other hand, some poor people envy the rich, with the result that the rich boycott and neglect them; arrogance among some rich people versus hatred among some poor people, and haughtiness among some dignitaries versus envy among some of the common people. In this way, the social classes of the same nation have mutual aversion to each other, cooperation disappears, bonds are undone, and production decreases. The remedy of that disease lies in the religious acts of worship in general, and Hajj in particular, which has a practical healing and effective decisive medicine to put an end to haughtiness, and lay the foundation for equality between all people in the form of (putting on the same clothing of) Ihram, performing Tawaaf, Sa‘y, and so on. In Hajj, no one could be distinguished from others with a particular uniform, clothing, appearance or adornment, because all of them are equal in their simple united appearance. That is indeed equality between individuals as well as between races and peoples, in compliance with what Allah Says (which means): {O mankind, indeed We Have Created you from male and female and Made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the Sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.} [Quran 49:13]

Islamic views on piety:

Our Messenger, sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, nor a white-complexioned to a black-complexioned except by virtue of piety.” Is Hajj then, from this point of view, worthy of the care of reformers, the concern of the sincere and the effort of the passionate?
We are all subject to our habits and governed by our traditions as a result of the house in which we live, the school in which we learn, and the environment surrounding us. A lot of our customs and habits are bad and harmful, the majority of our traditions are invalid and superstitious, and the greater part of what we agree upon is false and ignorant. Worship, as they said, is a second disposition, and to be released from traditions is very difficult upon a lot of people. When a reformer likes to straighten the crookedness of his nation, and push it towards the pathways of perfection, he encounters the rocks of habits and traditions. He may perish and die before changing his people from a familiar habit, given that “people are slaves of their traditions”. Hajj comes to release the individual from his habitual customs, and change his familiar traditions. Hajj, in this way, enables the pilgrim to govern himself, control his deeds, give up bad customs, and come away from awful traditions to the immense field of piety, virtues and spiritual elevation. That is because the pilgrim becomes a sovereign over his own self after having been a slave of his habits.
In confirmation of that, Allah Almighty Says (what means): {Hajj is [during] well-known months, so whoever has made Hajj obligatory upon himself therein [by entering the state of Ihram], there is [to be for him] no sexual relations and no disobedience and no disputing during Hajj. And whatever good you do – Allah Knows it.} [Quran 2:197]
The Messenger of Allah, sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, stated that Hajj brings the Muslim out of his sins, misdeeds, bad customs and habits, saying: “Whoever performs Hajj during which he does not have sexual intercourse (with his wife) nor commit wickedness, will become (as sinless) as he was on the very day his mother gave birth to him.” Is Hajj, in this sense, not worthy of the care of educationalists and psychologists? What is worthier of care than a worship-based practical system that releases man from the slavery of loss, and joins him to (Allah) The Most Merciful with a strong bond of truthfulness, certainty and faith? Countries allocate money to physical sports and military exercises, a system for which our youth in schools are preparing. Without doubt, sport is a source of strength, valor, courage and gallantry, and an important support pillar in the construction of the glory of the Ummah. Islam was a forerunner in recognizing the virtue of sport, when it commanded people to learn racing, archery, horsemanship, swimming and swordfight to prepare for Jihaad in the way of security, truth and peace. It joined sport with acts of worship, so that the emotion and feeling would share with the heart in performing it. Thus, sport becomes a physical power and a spiritual worship which has its glorious benefits in this world, and its great reward in the Hereafter.

Here I am, Oh God. Here I am.

Posted on July 28, 2015May 17, 2019 by admin 18 Views

As I sat outside with a friend in glorious spring weather, squinting against the sun and the tears gathering in my eyes, I knew how true this was. “You are going to keep having this same issue until you resolve it. You are going to keep circling around it,” she informed me. And she was right. Over the years we had been friends, I had raised variations on this same theme with her many times. I was caught in the gravitational pull of this problem. There were many days when I thought about it as I went to sleep, and it was on my mind when I woke up again.

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Many of us have that one issue we can’t stop focussing on. Work, relationships, money, status, past hurts, future fears, real or perceived injustices – we fixate on something and come back to it again and again as an old cassette stuck on a loop. And it starts to shape who we are. Mentally circling around something repetitively re-forms our inner self the same way a potter’s hands mold a lump of clay on a constantly-spinning wheel. So when I constantly focus on monetary wealth, when my thoughts are always on my bank balance and financial acquisition for personal gain, it is almost impossible not to become a greedy individual.
The light around which the moth of my soul spirals is both telling and formative. What is at our center matters.

One of the most important rituals of Hajj (the once-in-a-lifetime obligatory pilgrimage in Islam) is the rite of establishing what needs to be at a Muslim’s center. During this stage, Muslims must circumambulate a simple black cube called the Kaaba seven times. Muslims do not believe the Kaaba is God, or that God lives in there. Instead, this basic, empty box – perhaps most notable for its simplicity – is believed to be the first house built to monotheistic worship. Muslims believe Adam built it, and it was later re-built after damage, by the prophets Ibrahim and his son, and then lastly Muhammad. Thus, it is a tangible representation of the human need to worship God and God alone.

The centrifugal force of this world pushes us away from true surrender to God with all the intensity of the Gravitron ride at an amusement park. The spinning pressure flings us outward, and we are caught in a dizzy mess of the unhelpful distractions of life that pull us off our real course. This ritual of Hajj, called tawaf, reminds Muslims that only a life that circles permanently around God makes sense, that the one ethos to which we must return again and again is true love and submission to God.

As is so often the case in Islam, the worship of the body and the soul are closely intertwined. Our body bows down along with our spirit in our prayer (salat), our body taps into our spiritual starvation during our fasting (in Ramadan). And during the tawaf of Hajj, we reconnect with the central truth that our body, mind, and soul need to circle and re-circle. Our feet wear down coiling paths in the ground around the Kaaba, as Muslims have for hundreds and even thousands of years, reflects the more important track work of our souls being ingrained. Anything else we were previously looping around were just the idols of secondary concern.

The tawaf is about realigning ourselves with the gravitational pull of what our inner self needs to be orbiting: true presence with Allah, a focussed consciousness that is so often absent in the giddy spin of normal life. And so it is fitting that as Muslims first approach the Kaaba, the words they are to call to God are Labbayk Allahumma labbayk – “Here I am, Oh God. Here I am.”

Article source www.abc.net.au