Ramadan After Crisis

Preparing for the Holy Month of Fasting

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

There’s a bittersweetness that Ramadan brings every year. The solemnity that the holy month brings upon the Muslim ummah urges us to reflect on the past year, and to plan for the year ahead. In this reflection, we are reminded of the many, often unfulfilled, promises that we made to ourselves and to Allāh (SWT) the last time we were fortunate enough to see the new moon of Ramadan: to pray Tahajjud, to be better with hijab, to pray on time always, to engage in more nawafil and sadaqah... Then we remember that as the year wore on, prompt salah was sacrificed for the hustle and bustle of work, hijāb was hidden for social status, and indulgence didn’t leave enough for sadaqah, and the guilt begins to set in. Alhamdulillāh because this remorse is a sign that imān hasn’t left our hearts — a blessing and favour upon us from the Most Merciful of those who show mercy. Our remorse has now been assuaged with the coming of another Ramadan — the experiencing of which, in itself, is an indication that we are still recipients of Allāh’s infinite mercy. He has chosen to overlook our shortcomings, to delay our moment of hisāb, and to give us another opportunity for eternal salvation. Unfortunately, I almost got used to this cycle of guilt and relief in recent years. So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I thought to myself that it was finally an opportunity to maintain the level of Ibadah in Ramadan, if not for the next year, at least for a few months. After all, in what seemed like a moment, the world stopped. Plans that I thought were set in stone would suddenly not happen (and may never do), my ‘Summer 2020’ travel itineraries didn’t go further than my Notes app, and many of my social obligations were forced behind a screen. But as Allāh (SWT) has promised: “Indeed with hardship, will be ease”, so I sought the blessings that a pandemic offers and found the ultimate blessing of time and seclusion. Have there been better reasons and conditions to focus on worshipping Allāh (SWT) than a national lockdown because of a public health crisis? Elsewhere in the world, the concentric circles of black and white circumambulating the Ka’abah and bowing to it — pilgrims and worshippers making Tawaaf and observing salah — had vanished, and the marble floors so often obscured by their feet glistened under the sky. Mere weeks before, an all-but-empty Haram with no Tawaaf-makers (even outside the month of Ramadan) seemed an impossible prospect. I remember watching Sheikh Saud ash-Shuraim (Rahimahullāh) lead the first night of Taraweeh prayers of the COVID era at Masjid al-Haram. Shuraim is one of the most composed and consistent reciters of the Imams of the Haramain Sharifain, but even his usually stolid demeanour faltered in the unprecedented circumstances. He recited Surah Al-Fatihah with an unusually shaky voice and audible breath, before faltering in the third verse of Surah Al-Baqarah. The moment was sombre and alarming. Sombre because I see the activity around the Haramain Sharifain as a metaphor for the constant worship that Muslims are engaged in — we are dispersed all over the world yet striving the same purpose — so I momentarily interpreted the emptiness as a sign that we as an Ummah were faltering in our worship. Alarming because I wondered how badly we as an Ummah had deviated from the right path that Allāh (SWT) sent upon us this great sign and trial. Only He has ultimate wisdom of why events occur but some of it is apparent to us: Is there a better prompt for reflection and worship than seeing the Ummah kept out from their home? And of course, everywhere in the world, many lives were lost. Many of our elderly and immuno-compromised, healthy just weeks before, fulfilled their decreed lifespans and were recalled by Al-Mumīt. Another sign and blessing for us because, does anything make you remember the importance of striving for a pious life than proximity to death?

For the first time in my life, the pandemic forced me to confront the reality that death is around the corner for everyone. We all say that we can drop dead any second, but how many of us really believe that we can? I know I didn’t really believe because I didn’t act like it. The pandemic, as with all of Allāh’s trials, ended up being a blessing. Seeing the fickleness of the things we often prioritise – our money, our careers, mindless pleasure – forced me to think about the type of life that I wanted to live, and prioritise the dunya over the ‘Akhirah. Last year’s Ramadan was one of the most beautiful periods of my life and I was so certain that I would be able to maintain that khushū’ in Ibadah. But looking back at the following months, the same deterioration set in. So in the lead up to this Ramadan, I sat back and thought: what am I engaging in that keeps drawing me away from Allāh. Yes, it’s the nafs and Shaytaan but how are they getting to me? Intense reflection revealed a simple reason: engaging with what does not concern me.

I (and many others, probably) consider myself fairly resistant to peer pressure and external influence however, even without those proclivities, I found that my interactions with the digital/social media, and more broadly, the internet, was making me spend time on matters wholly irrelevant to me. There is no need to detail the extent of nonsense on the internet and the time wasting that can result from paying attention to it, but I found that what was most dangerous was the constant insight into the projected lives of others . To a great extent, we are conditioned by our environments, and if we see something often enough, we are more likely to accept it as axiomatic. In the age of misinformation, fitna and general moral decay, paying attention to your environment can be harmful because we end up absorbing that decay and letting it affect our imān. So I found that I needed to greatly limit my knowledge of people’s lives and opinions, so I don’t absorb what is an increasingly wrong status quo. Moreover, the human tendency to pass moral judgement on the character of a person (which is discouraged in Islam) based on a mere snippet of their lives is amplified by social media. At-Tirmidhi and others related a Hadith on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said,

“Part of the perfection of one’s Islam is his leaving that which does not concern him.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, whose Sunan Abi Dāwūd is considered one of the six canonical works of hadith, commented that this hadith is a one-fourth of Islam. The Shafi’i jurist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, in his commentary on the 40 Hadiths of Imam An-Nawawi, went further to say that this hadith is half of Islam — the justification being that Islam is a religion of two halves: half of the deen is doing and the other half is not doing. However on further thought, he doubled down on his position to say that this Hadith is actually all of Islam because leaving that which does not concern necessarily means engaging only in what concerns you: the worship and obedience of Allāh.

The importance of seeking knowledge

The constant exchange of information that social media and the internet is even more insidious in another way: it gives us the illusion of knowledge. It’s almost as if, because we have the tools that allow us to access so much knowledge, we assume that we have that knowledge already without going through the difficult of learning the knowledge itself, and the process by which that knowledge is obtained. Undoubtedly, the easy access to information is one of Allāh’s blessings upon our Ummah, but reaping the benefits requires effort. Allāh (SWT) repeatedly speaks of the blessings of the one who is given knowledge in the Qur’an and His messenger has also spoken of it. Concerning ourselves with irrelevant matters leaves little time for seeking knowledge which is an obligation upon us.

It is those of His servants who have knowledge who stand in true awe of Allah. Indeed Allah is Almighty, Most Forgiving — [35:28]

The importance of the purification of the soul

We are all fallible and I will no doubt again fall prey to the trappings of the fitna that fills the world. But Allāh (SWT) and His messenger (SAW) have given us a roadmap for the purification of our souls in the Holy Qur’an and the beautiful Sunnah. In a hadith in Sahih Muslim, Zayd bin Arqam reported that the Messenger of Allah said:

اللْهُمَّ آتِ نَفْسِي تَقْوَاهَا، وَزَكِّهَا أَنْتَ خَيْرُ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا، أَنْتَ وَلِيُّهَا وَمَوْلَاهَا

O Allah! Give my soul its good and purify it, for You are the best to purify it. You are its Guardian and Master.

This purification is so important that Allāh (SWT) took 11 solemn oaths on some of His greatest signs to highlight its importance in Surah Ash-Shams. As we are constantly exposed to fitna, we must prioritise this purification to rid ourselves of immorality and limit the external (negative) influences that our society presents.

“By the sun and its brightness. And [by] the moon when it follows it. And [by] the day when it displays it. And [by] the night as when it covers (i.e., conceals) it. And by the sky and He Who constructed it. And by the earth and He Who spread it. And [by] the soul and He Who proportioned it. And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness, He has succeeded who purifies it [the soul], And he has failed who instills it [with corruption]. — [91:1–10]

So as a new Ramadan is here, we face another trial of reaching a peak in our Ibadah and maintaining that, not just until the next Ramadan, but until we fulfil our decreed term in this fleeting life and the angel of death takes our souls. May Allāh (SWT), the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, instill taqwa in our hearts and enable us to succeed in this trial. May we be able to focus on what concerns us: the worship and obedience of Allāh, and leave all that does not concern us. May Allāh (SWT) forgive our shortcomings, bestow His mercy upon us, and guide us to the Straight Path this Ramadan. I send peace and blessings on our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), his companions and his family.

Ramadan Mubarak.