Eid Mubarak!...now what?

For those enjoying the last hours of Ramadan, may Allah (swt) give you the strength and patience to make the best of every last minute. For others who are now enjoying their morning cup of coffee - Eid Mubarak! May Allah (swt) accept your fasting and worship and give you the chance to enjoy many more Ramadans.

To me, just as the beginning of Ramadan brings together the happiness of being given a chance to witness the blessed month and the fear of not being able to fulfill its rights and obligations; the end of Ramadan brings together the joy of breaking one's fast and the fear of slipping back into old sins even before the takbeerat are over.

Yes, Ramadan is different and it is probably impossible to continue the Ramadan worship routine (even without the fasting) every day of the coming year. Yet, one of the signs of an accepted Ramadan is that the believer continues some of the good habits and positive lifestyle changes she made during the holy month.

But, it's harder with shaytan around the rest of the year!! True, but remember what Allah (swt) mentions in the Holy Quran:

"...Indeed, the plot of Satan has ever been weak." [4:76]

To understand this better, let us take a quick look at what scholars describe as the source of negative thoughts. Every deed (whether good or bad) begins with a thought (khatir). There are three sources of negative thoughts (those leading to sins):

1) Shaytan
2) The nafs
3) Leading (istidraj) from Allah (swt)

Out of the three, shaytan's influence is the weakest (the second is the hardest and the third is the most dangerous). All it takes to get rid of him are a few words:" I seek refuge in Allah from the rejected Shaytan." Constant remeberance of Allah (swt) (thikr) and being in a state of purity (taharah) are also great weapons against shaytan.

As often mentioned, it is the first week after Ramadan that is critical. Shaytan and his team are furious about all their hard work gone down the drain during Ramadan and are determined to take us back to our pre-Ramadan ways.

By the way, there's an easy way of telling if a negative thought is coming from shaytan or from the nafs. Shaytan will do anything to get you away from doing good deeds. He will go from one temptation to the next, from one negative thought to the next until he finds something you are willing to agree to. As for the nafs, it desires specific things. If you find yourself getting a persistant negative thought which doesn't change or go away even with thikr then it's probably your nafs. What do you do in that case? Tame your nafs as you would a wild animal: by giving it less food and more work (sounds familiar?).

May Allah (swt) bless us with steadfastness after Ramadan and protect us from the whisphers of Shaytan, ameen.

PS: this post is a glimpse from an amazing lecture series (in Arabic) by Sheikh Ali al-Jafri, may Allah (swt) reward him.

About time Muslamics has a post on Ramadan!

Rapidly, months pass before our eyes until Ramadan is upon us. The first days may seem stretched, but thereafter they dash by Having realization of the movement of time is part of the Ramadan project.

Harboring suspicion, rancor, or negative opinions about other people is especially noxious in Ramadan. The same goes for all forms of cheating, vanity, and irrational anger. Ramadan is a month of remembrance, for we stand long in prayer listening to the Quran.

Boasting and arrogance are starved in Ramadan. How can they survive, while we admit our abject need of God and His generous provision?

All of these blessings of Ramadan come with the obvious caveat: nothing is automatic. This is not the system that God set in place in our lives and the world in which we live. Without effort and sincere trust, Ramadan can easily be just another 30 days in a year, no special moment.

Even for those who fast, who mechanically deprive themselves without striving to reach deep into their soul for spiritual lessons, replenishment, and climbing, the month comes and goes with only the sense of inconvenience and then a celebration at the end. Then life goes on as it did the months of the year before. One cannot help but notice a tragedy in this: God so generously opens portals in time, truly special opportunities for us to grow, learn, and build for our Hereafter, yet people turn away from it with casual notice and perfunctory interest.

Excerpts from Purification of the Heart

May Allah (swt) make us of those who take advantage of this magnificent gift, and not of those who are heedless towards it, ameen.

For more on preparing for Ramadan check out this, this, and this (for lecture-junkies, the last one has a whole bunch of them).

If you have any cool tips for making the best of Ramadan please share!

Deeply spiritual or deeply ignorant?

This article in Newsweek about 'Muslim' Punk Rock stars (thanks Zahra for forwarding) reminded me of excerpts from one of my favourite books (which I was planning on posting anyway):

" People ask about those who engage in a great deal of remembrance yet neglect or ignore obligatory rites of worship as if they have transcended the need for these rites. This is unmitigated ignorance.

The first and foremost obligation on every human being is to gain knowledge. A human being is nothing until he has learned what is obligatory on every individual (fard `ayn). Without this a person has no rank or standing with God, and nothing is more consequential to a person other than his standing with God.

When God created us, He gave us accountability and the means and ability to carry out our responsibilities. Anyone who does not care to learn the first order of knowledge is living the life of a farm animal, a creature that does nothing but graze in this life, which is entirely insufficient in God's sight.

There is a confused sense of spirituality in which one feels that he or she can attain to the Reality without tending to the responsibilities and obligations of the Shari`a. This is a misleading phenomenon that spreads because of its appeal: spiritual sensation without any moral obligation.

Islam does not call people to unreasoned faith. It demands that a person learn authentic knowledge, which buttresses true spiritual growth. This real spirituality is protected by Shari`a , just as a shell protects its fruit. A person who tries to attain spirituality without the Shari`a will eventually destroy his soul and become, in essence, a false person.

Our objective is not merely to go through these spiritual experiences, but to firmly be grounded in a path that takes us to the pleasure of God and salvation in the Hereafter. If one performs remembrance properly and often, things will happen to the inner self. These things are studies by scholars of the inner sciences.

But we're also aware that Satan can play games with those who engage in certain practices blindly and without knowledge and prioritization. That's the peril of New Age practises and philosophies that can lead to sensations and experiences in which the one having them cannot distinguish between satanic influences, psychological phenomena and true spiritual encounters."