"Are you ready for Ramadan?"
Sr. Izzy Mo asks the question and although I've been thinking about Ramadan for some time, her post got me thinking about what Ramadan brings.
Before I begin, I know I've gotten some slack from my readers on being so negative and all gloom-and-doom and I swear I've tried to be more positive (See Good News Posts). However, the true Naeem is coming out here when I say that Ramadan really brings out the entire spectrum of mixed emotions.
First of all, I love Ramadan. I love it soo much. I especially love it in a Muslim society (I'm working on a post describing Ramadan in Riyadh).
I love the spiritual boost that comes with it. I love the added incentives that our loving Lord has given us to entice us into action. I love how Allah (swt) has locked up the devils, leaving us face to face, for one solid month, with the evils of our own selves. Yes, I love the time I have with my own nafs (self), allowing me to confront it, combat it, and crush it, even if only momentarily (see below).
I love the varying cultural actualizations of Ramadan. Every culture has a different way they celebrate Ramadan. Check that, every family has a different way. I've come to terms with the reality that Ramadan is more than a religious event (although, I still believe the religious context needs to be highlighted first and foremost). Ramadan is a social and cultural celebration. I love that as well.
But I hate the realities that Ramadan exposes. I hate that I need Ramadan to bring me to a level of spiritual awareness that I really should be maintaining through out the year.
I feel like such an opportunist for waiting until Ramadan to wake up for Tahajjud (night-prayer). I feel like such a sleazy hypocrite for going to the masjid every night only in Ramadan. I feel like such a fraud for reading the entire Quran in this one month while I can't even duplicate that effort across the other eleven months of the year!
While the countless blessings of my Lord take no break during the year, why do I?
I hate that Ramadan lasts only for a month. Why does Ramadan play these games with my spiritual heart, playing its yearly peek-a-boo? Why does Ramadan give me such a high for these few weeks only to leave me gasping for more, like a spiritual junkie looking for the Ramadan fix?
I feel so dirty when I look back at the heights I achieved in Ramadan only to have fallen flat on my face so quickly after Eid.
I feel so discouraged and beaten down.
But the amazing thing is that every year, for the past 25 years of my adult life, my most loving Creator has allowed me this chance to revive myself - to sustain myself. He (swt) has not lost hope in me.
He (swt) has allowed me to waken from my slumber, recite my daily portions of the Quran, attend the nightly prayers, raise my hands in supplication and bow my head in prostration (am I even worthy of such noble gestures?) with that hope – the hope that this Ramadan, (O please let it be this Ramadan, ya Allah!...I'm begging You Please!!) that this Ramadan be the special one which will get me over that hump...that hump behind which my nafs is lurking, waiting so eagerly to pounce on the weak spiritual flame that I have struggled to kindle in these blessed days.
I hope and I pray that this Ramadan be the one.
That, I guess, is the greatest blessing of Ramadan. The hope that accompanies this blessed month.
WAW
2 days ago
12 comments:
A) I love this post and feel the same way!
B) You shouldn't beat your self up over the varying degree of spirituality ramadan vs the rest of the year.
If you did all that stuff year round, Ramadan wouldn't be as special. We wouldn't want that, would we?
Because then we'd build a tolerance for it. And when Ramadan comes we wouldn't feel that intense spirituality. We wouldn't love it as much.
We're human, we need both highs and lows in order to appreciate the highs and fear the lows.
I'm not saying be a sinner year round; I know we still have to aspire towards dedicating this short life entirely to God. But I think it's important to leave a degree of "extra work" that's solely dedicated to Ramadan, aside from fasting. It makes Ramadan all the more special :)
C) Aameen to your du'aas, and hopefully the same for me!
I disagree. If we reached a level where we could keep up the good that we did in Ramadan, throughout the entire year, the barakah I'M SURE would be amazing every Ramadan! Allah only grants the ability to a Muslim to keep up with his deeds and keep that spiritual high if He loves him dearly! And HE MOST HIGH would not allow a person like that to become kinda 'normal' to Ramadan. The best example of this: Rasulullah and then his companions and those who fear Allah! May peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all!
Brother Na'eem, I'm hoping the same with you brother. 6 years into Islam and I've only got the memories of my first Ramadan to make me want Ramadan. I want it so badly, so badly to stay with me, to be blessed and amazing for the time Ramadan is there and after. So make du'aa' for all the Muslims out there, that Allah helps them and grants them sincerity, strength and His Mercy! Ya Rabb!
AA Naeem. I agree that most of us are opportunists for waiting til Ramadhaan to do certain things, like Tahhajud, I mean come on, we suck for that one!
We can only beg Allah swt to assist us in remedying that and many other things that we neglect. However, I disagree that we can maintain the spiritual state that we are in during Ramadhaan the whole rest of the year. Not anymore than we can maintain the feeling we get at hajj all the rest of the years of our lives or the giddy weird feeling of first being married or the overwhelming feeling of love upon meeting your first-born child. You get my point.
BUT, What these events afford us are memories that are so ingrained in our memories that we can always return to them to remind us of the Mercy of Our Lord. The beauty of His Creation. Our own fragile existence. Our reliance on Allah swt. Our duty towards our Lord. Our duty towards others.
So anyway, I love that Ramadhaan is only once a year and that Hajj is once a year and only once a life for most of us, and that our children are only babies once and that we only live one time for this is the Sunnah of Allah swt.
So we look forward to these monumental moments to get us closer to Allah swt and look back on them when we have become static spiritually. We need something to look forward to in this as well as the next! I pray Allah swt grants you all that you ask and more for He is the Most Generous and the best to reward! Ameen.
This Ramadan may be a special Ramadan.
Is something big like 911 coming in this September ?
"The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said."
"Stand down? so someone can sneak in? "
"Also pls note Sept. 14 is the first day of month of Ramadhan (fasting month), or first fasting day for muslim anywhere in the world. It is celebration for muslim. Is someone preparing something nasty on this date?"
Another flase-flag event like 911 ?
---- $ 4.5 billion Bet on Stock Market crash in September------------------
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/
08/45b-bet-on-another-911-within-4-weeks.html
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/08/
mystery-trader-bets-market-will-crash.html
http://www.smartmoney.com/news/on/
index.cfm?story=ON-20070816-000531-0927
--Nukes for false flag Operation --------------------
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/
article.asp?ID=7133
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/a
rticle.asp?ID=7131
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/
09/those-five-nukes-on-that-b-52-may-have.html
AA-
Thanks for you beautiful comments everyone!
@ Lone Leaf: “If you did all that stuff year round, Ramadan wouldn't be as special. We wouldn't want that, would we?”
I agree that we need a special time like Ramadan to give us an *added* boost – to build onto the boost that we ought to have been sustaining from the previous Ramadan.
We shouldn’t be returning to pre-Ramadan levels, waiting until the next Ramadan to get that same high, right?
That’s my problem. Instead using Ramadan like a step ladder that I’m climbing one level each year, it ends up being like a step aerobics routine – going up one level and then coming right back (repeat every year).
@ Umm Layth,
If I understood you correctly, you made a very good point here:
“And HE MOST HIGH would not allow a person like that to become kinda 'normal' to Ramadan.”
Allah (swt) would reward the servant who sustained his Ramadan level by making the next Ramadan even MORE special. Excellent point!
@ Sahra,
Very beautiful points. I really agree with the overall gist (about the special uniqueness of Hajj, the first born, etc.), but I still can’t come to accept the fact that we are not supposed continue the good deeds of Ramadan throughout the year.
Isn’t that the whole purpose behind Ramadan? Isn’t the purpose of Hajj to turn a new leaf in life and start all over, never to return to the sinful days of pre-Hajj?
Yes, I do agree that there is a special blessing and joy in Ramadan being once a year. I simply have a problem with me not keeping up the spiritual momentum gained throughout the month...
AA- Pacific,
C'mon now, you're conspiracy theory routine is getting very tiring. How can you honestly go through life thinking that around every corner is a some devious freemason plot to destroy the world?
Listen, there are TOO many problems facing us that we would be wasting our time addressing those problems that are 'hidden' and I would say even imaginary.
fried.
i used to live in Riyadh - 7 years ago.. Really loved somethings about Ramadan there.
One year my parents had to pick me up from tutions right around iftar time. And @ the traffic lights, small iftar "kits" used to be distributed..
And also haram being so close was the most blessed feeling! (though, i never had the chance to go for an umrah during ramadan)
Let us try to find out the sickness.
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http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/
article_2372.shtml
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After my talk on Martha’s Vineyard a man came up to me and said, “I enjoyed your speech and was with you until you started that conspiracy stuff about MLK, Jr.” I said, “That’s not conspiracy. What I told you are facts.” End of conversation.
I think we’re confronted with two conspiracies here: one to commit the crime, the other to ignore it even when the facts are known. ( Two sides of the same coin.) The man who accused me of slipping into the neurotic, aliens-are–among-us land of conspiracy nuts was unable to hear the evidence, perhaps because he was so utterly convinced by our government and media that conspiracies don’t exist, people who espouse them are dangerous fruitcakes, and if you begin to think like that, your whole house of cards wobbles then topples. Who wants that? Better a standing tower of marked cards, than having to admit the game is rigged and the ground is shaking.
In fact, the cultural success of labeling investigative reporters and forensic historians, and, simply, anyone who tries to name reality, “conspiracy nuts” is perhaps the most successful conspiracy of our time.
################
So ?
AA- Hafsa,
Ahhh yes, the Iftar kits given out at many of the street intersections... how sweet indeed! We have also gotten 'caught' outside during the Iftar time and have benefited from these tiny boxes consisting of dates, water/juice and some cheese sandwich.
I'll be sure to include that in my upcoming Ramadan in Riyadh post. Thanks for the reminder!
AA- Pacific,
That was actually a very nice article. I recommend everyone to read it.
But there is a significant difference between Shetterly's message and the one you seem to be peddling. I agree with 100% of what he says, while I don't find any room for conciliation with your links to illuminati and freemasons...
I have called out on several occasions the sham of American democracy and bigger sham of capitalism. That's the basic premise of Shetterly's article. That's not conspiracy nuttery.
On the other hand, talk of something big happening on Sept 14 or George Washington being a freemason really sucks out the credibility that Shetterly is struggling to fight for.
I'm with him...care to join us?
That is exactly what I meant brother Na'eem. Subhanallah imagine
Ramadan Mubarak to you and your family.
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