Like a blink of an eye, Ramadan is almost upon us again. Here's a two-part article that reminds us what Ramadan is really all about. It's a reminder that should be in our hearts and minds as we prepare outselves to face the blessed month of Ramadan.
Controlling Our Inner Self Before Ramadan
By Yasmin Mogahed, On Islam – Part 1, Part 2 - June 2012.
Controlling Our Inner Self Before Ramadan
By Yasmin Mogahed, On Islam – Part 1, Part 2 - June 2012.
We are going to talk about a very important topic: the month of Ramadan and how to really prepare ourselves for Ramadan in the context of training our nafs (inner self)...
If you are far from that source of water, are you ever going to quench your thirst?
To begin the topic of training the nafs and the topic of how we should enter Ramadan, we have to really start from the beginning, and the beginning goes back to the essential question of what is our purpose?
What is our purpose of existence?
This is a question that has been asked by people, philosophers basically, from the beginning of time. Why are we here? What is our purpose? Why were we put in this world? And what we are intended to accomplish?
Essence of Worship
While this is an issue that has been discussed by many philosophers, Allah, exalted is He, has actually given us the answer to this question, a very clear answer. He tells us in the Qur'an:
I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. (Surah Adh-Dhariyat 51; 5)
So Allah explains in this ayat (verse) that He has not created jinn and human beings except for one single purpose: to fulfil worship to Allah. So the reason why we exist, the reason why we were created, is for this one singular purpose.
The construction of this ayat is important as you notice the ayat begins with a negation. It says that Allah doesn’t just say that He created mankind for this purpose, but rather Allah says that He has NOT created mankind for any other purpose. So you begin by negating any other purpose for which we were created. And then Allah, exalted is He, says this one single purpose.
Worship means living every second of our life in this universe in such a way that our intent is in accordance with the intent of our creator.
In order to understand this ayat, we really have to be able to define the concept of ubudiyah, ‘worshipping’. We have heard probably this ayat many times, but the question is what really is the meaning of worshipping.
When Allah says that our purpose is worship, this worship can be defined as living our life in such a way, living in this universe and every second of our life in such a way that our intent is in accordance with the intent of our Creator. So what that means is that my focus is the same as what God wants it to be, my intent and my goals are as God wants them to be: there is an accordance between my intent and that of my Creator.
When I live my life so that internally and externally we have the same focus, and that’s my goal, which is the same as what God’s goal is for me, then that is worship.
When you really actualize worshipping, the consequence of that proper worshipping when you are in line with my Creator, is something extremely profound, and that is salam (peace). When I am in a state of worshipping God, the consequence is that I attain peace. And that peace begins inside of myself, and when I have that peace inside of myself, then I can actualize peace outside of myself.
If you look at one of the attributes of Allah it is Al-Salam: Allah is The Peace. And in a hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in one of his du’a he would say, "Allah You are the source of peace and from You comes peace.”
In Search of Inner Peace
Now if you think about this concept of God being the source of peace, what that means is that there is no other way to get peace except by seeking this source. Allah tells us in the Qur’an:
And Allah summons to the abode of peace, and leads whom He will to a straight path. (Surah Yunus 10: 25)
Allah tells us that He is calling us to the home of Salam (peace). If you think for a second about this metaphor. Imagine that someone is in the middle of a desert and they are desperate for water and there is only one source of water in that desert. Now think about what would happen if you are far away from that source of water. If you are far from that source of water, are you ever going to quench your thirst? And if you far from that source of water, are you ever going to be able to give water to others?
If we are not near God Who is the source of peace, we can never ever attain peace.
The only way you can quench that thirst is by being near to that source. So by being nearer than I am to that source of water, the more that I can quench my thirst, and the more that I can give to others. But if we are not close to the source of water, we can never quench our thirst.
Similarly, if we are not near God, who is the source of peace, we can never ever attain peace. And the nearer I am to that source, the more I will have of it. So the nearer I am to the source of water the more water I will have, and the nearer I am to the source of peace the more peace that I will have.
And again it’s important to understand obviously in this life this is not a physical nearness. Rather, this is a nearness of our heart, of our soul to Allah, exalted is He... And that heart, not the physical organ, is the part of the human being that connects to God in this life before the next life. In order to attain this nearness to the source of water, to the source of peace, there are two things which we must do. There are two requirements in order to attain nearness to this source of peace. And Allah (SWT) tells us about those in the following ayat:
He it is Who has sent among the unlettered ones a messenger of their own, to recite unto them His revelations and to make them grow, and to teach them the Scripture and wisdom, though heretofore they were indeed in error manifest. (Surah Al-Jumu’ah 62: 2)
God is saying here that it is He who has sent among the unlettered an apostle from among themselves, the Prophet, peace be upon him, for a certain purpose - to rehearse on them His signs, and in order to purify them and to instruct them in scripture and in manifest wisdom.
If you notice here there are two components mentioned in this ayat. The first is knowledge. Allah (SWT) says that He sent the messenger in order to give then knowledge and in order to purify them, and that before that they were in manifest error. And so the two components in order to be able to attain the peace of Allah (SWT) are knowledge and purification, purification of the inner self.
So if we are going to begin to undertake this journey to the source of peace, we have to undergo this process of tazkiyah, the purification of the soul...
Controlling Our Inner Self for True Freedom
The two components in order to attain the peace of Allah is knowledge and purification, purification of the inner self.
So if we are to begin to undertake this journey to the nearness to the source of peace, God, we have to undergo the process of tazkiyah (purification).
To be truly liberated is to be free from the chains of my own self.
Even if we look at the word Shari’ah, it literally means a path to the source of water. So God is giving us Shari’ah in order to reach that source of water and that source of peace. If we follow that path of Allah, that’s the only way we are going to achieve the true source of peace.
This brings us to the idea of what does all of this have to do with fasting? What has all of this have to do with Ramadan? Allah gives us Ramadan in order to aid us in this process. The way in which this happens is that we know that we have basically two things or entities that prevent us from seeking Allah.
These two blocks keep us from being good, from seeking that path to the source of peace. The first is Satan, which we know is our external enemy, and he is the source of this outer whispering that happens in our mind and in our heart. The second block is the nafs, the self.
Nafs is the inner inclinations. That’s my own self, my inner inclination to do that. All of us want to seek God, but we are human beings and we have inner ailments. Sometimes we get angry, sometimes we feel hatred, selfishness, arrogance, prejudice, and fear. These are all inner ailments which prevent me from attaining that peace by being near to the source of peace, God.
And so in order to seek and reach that source of peace, I have to clean myself of those inner ailments. That is the process of tazkiyah (purification) of the nafs. That’s the process of training and purifying the self. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
“When Ramadan begins, the gates of Paradise are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the devils are chained.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari)
Ramadan is a time when I have to face my nafs, because it’s just me and my nafs. Satan is not involved anymore.
So this makes us kind of stop and reflect. A lot of times we hear this hadith and we think, well we are going to go into Ramadan, then we will become angels as now Satan is chained up and we are able to be angels. But we find that still we are not angels. Ramadan comes and we still are making mistakes, we are still sinning, we are still falling into error. So the question is why? Why is it that we continue to do that?
If you think about when you were in school, doing an experiment and trying to be nearer the cause to something; in order to be nearer the cause to a particular event, you have to eliminate other possible causes in order to see if it affects the event.
In this case, when Ramadan comes, God is removing the other factor, which is Satan. So anything that I do in Ramadan I now know it’s not from Satan. I can’t blame Satan because now Satan is chained up. Now I can only blame my own nafs. So Ramadan is a time when we really learn about the nafs. Ramadan is a time when I have to face my nafs, because it’s just me and my nafs. Satan is not involved anymore. So Ramadan is the time when I encounter my own self, and if I do wrong there’s no one else to blame.
True Freedom
This brings us to something, which is true freedom. We live in a society where they teach you that freedom is freedom of the self. But this is actually absolutely untrue. It's the opposite. True freedom is freedom from the self, not freedom of the self.
Write this down:
To be truly liberated is to be free from the chains of my own self. That is true freedom.
And freedom of the self is actually the opposite, because when my nafs is free, and my nafs is in control of me, then I am actually a slave. I’m not free at all. So when people say things like follow your heart, they really mean follow your nafs. The reason for that is that sometimes when the nafs becomes so strong, it takes over the heart. And now the nafs is in charge, it is in control. And so when you become enslaved to your nafs, that’s not freedom. That’s actually slavery. And indulging the self does something else; it disengages you from the freedom of exalting in more knowledge and more nearness to God.
Now, what does all that have to do with fasting?
I want you to think for a second: if we are so busy in loving to eat, for example, and that is what we do most of the time, what happens when our focus is on the physical pleasure, which includes the physical appetite basically?
When my focus is on the physical appetite of feeding my physical body, then that means my focus is not on the spiritual aspect - the heart and the soul. All I’m thinking about is what am I going to eat, what am I going to drink, and what am I going to cook. So what I do is I’m seeking comfort in food.
At some point a lot of us can relate to this; when we are really feeling stressed out and really sad, we go to food, we seek comfort in food, like stereotyped chocolate, ice-cream. A lot of women know that. But the idea here is that there’s some truth to this concept that we do seek to gain some sort of pleasure through food, physical pleasure giving in to the physical needs of the body.
Why Fast?
By fasting what we realize is that we can find happiness in something other than the physical world.
When we take away the focus from the physical need, now your focus is free - free to be directed to the spiritual need, towards the need of the heart and of the soul. And by fasting what we realize is that we can find happiness in something other than the physical world. That is extremely profound, that I can find pleasure and fulfilment in something other than the physical material world. By leaving food and drink and intimate relations, I’m finding that there’s another whole world when I can find truer, deeper and real fulfilment and happiness that has nothing to do with the physical needs or the physical pleasure.
The other aspect is that when I disengage from focusing on food, or in general the physical appetite or the physical pleasure, now I’m able to engage intellectually with God. Now I can focus on the deeper source of truth in my life. If my whole focus is having fun and indulging in all these different types of entertainment, then when am I really going to be engaged intellectually?
So what fasting does is it liberates me from my addictions. Fasting is intended to liberate us, as Allah disengages us from our addiction to food and drink so that we can realize that life is beyond the physical needs, and that there’s joy and pleasure and happiness that is not physical and is not material. So I don’t think that the physical nourishment is the means to pleasure and happiness.
And you will notice the same with salah (prayer), when five times a day I have to interrupt what I’m doing which is usually mundane or limited or material, and I have to interrupt that in order that I don’t become dependent or addicted to that thing.
By interrupting whatever it is I’m doing in my life throughout the day and going to pray, I’m cutting myself off from it, and by doing that I’m preventing myself from becoming addicted, dependent or a prisoner to what it is that I need to do daily. So obviously I have to go to work, interact with people, and I have to do things of the worldly life (dunya). Obviously we live in this world and we must live in it, but the question is how to live in the dunya without becoming addicted, attached, and a prisoner to it.
Allah exactly gives us the prescription to be able to live in the dunya without being drowned by it, without being addicted to it, without being a prisoner to it. And in case of salah, by breaking away five times a day I’m disengaging from the dunya in a way that I can refocus on what is eternal...
Video Part 1
Video Part 2
On Heart & Spirituality:
Sources:
[Edited. Some images added.]
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