Ramadan - the Breaker of Bad Habits

It is true that Ramadan is the greatest habit breaker; it dishevels hairs, destroys our wake-sleep patterns and tries our patience. And that is one of the reasons that we love it. 

Indeed our Sheikhs constantly remind us that true test of whether our fasts have been accepted is if our changed better habits persist past the month’s end. 

Then it is an easy step for us to think that Ramadan is all about breaking bad habits, and nurturing better newer habits. 

It is as if it has become just another  annual resolution committer: that we commit to becoming better selves and when we fail in keeping to those resolutions then we have lost that Ramadan. 

For that blessed opportunity has both come and gone. 

But when you immerse yourself in the texts of Islam removed from our modern experience of multiple life coaches, then that is just not true. 

It is often said that you do not really know the value of a thing until you loose it. 

But true knowledge of a thing is deeper than even that, that we know water because it quenches our thirst, and we know the worth of food because it calms our hunger pangs, and blesses us both with vigour and energy. 

That therefore true knowable knowledge really affects us physically, and changes us. 

And in essence fulfils our deepest needs.  

Maybe part of Ramadan is to remind us of this simple truth. 

For the true miracle of Ramadan is the opportunity it gives us to move closer to God. How it enervates us all with energy. The energy to sacrifice.  

Recall that it is in Ramadan that God opens the gates of His Mercy.  

That after the verse in Baqara that mentions the fast in Ramadan, that He says that He responds to our supplications and is close to us. 

That in the last third of these nights that He descends and brings Himself closer to us. 

This is the opportunity that awaits us, and then God has also blessed us with the knowledge of how to become close to Him. 

It is reported in a Sahih Hadith that the ways to God are first through the fardh; the ordained prayers, paying the poor due, and fasting the prescribed fasts; and then through the Sunnah and then the Nafl prayers and acts. 

Indeed Ramadan is the month of the Quran. 

And the Quran is God’s speech and the greatest of Dhikrs (remembrances). 

So busy your lips with Quran and with the Tasbih (Glorifying God). 

Busy your bones with the nafl Salaat. 

Busy your hands with helping others. 

And busy your brains in contemplation. 

And God, himself, is the greatest of Knowledges and belief in Him is the most transformative of powers. 

Therefore do not focus on your habits, but focus your efforts on becoming closer to God and let Him be the One to transform you in the most beautiful of ways. 

And it is through this means that you will become closer to Him, and also come to know Him better. For He himself is the mover of hearts, the giver of bounties unlooked for. 

How marvellous is the Most Gracious, that He created the whole Cosmos in truth with the finest of details and nourishes each part of it in due measure. 

And He created simply that He might be known. (Hadith Qudsi - an Nawawi). 

And then He provided us with intellect and sense that we might come to know Him. 

And sent a Messenger (saw) to us that we might come to know the ways of becoming closer to Him. 

So do not let this opportunity pass you by. 

For this is month to exhaust yourself in prayers, and dhikr, and the Quran. 

And God is the One that loves for you to be happy, and so He does not burden you but instead blesses you with an opportunity.   

And that is a reward which is certain, InshaAllah. 

And even if bad habits do return, do not feel you have failed - for God is the One that loves to forgive, for those that repent and draw closer to Him. 

Allah is one, and there is no God but He.

He is the greatest of principles, the most Just, and True, the ever Doer of Good. The Most Beautiful, and the Keeper of the Most Beautiful of things.  

And we believe in Him, His angels, His books (that He sent down), His messengers and prophets (and we make no distinction between any of them for they were all His servants, sent by Him to bring us news from the unseen), Heaven and Hell which are certain, and Qadr’Allah that with Him belongs the decree of all things. 

And these are from the unseen World, and by God’s Infinite Grace we have believed in them and know them to be both true and real. 

*“Indeed in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find Peace.”* 

IAl-Quran 

Our Living History: The rituals at the Haramain

I wish I could be with each of you when you make the trip to our revered places - the Haramain -at Mecca and Medina. 

How I would instruct in the beauty of how our religion has made our history part, and parcel, of the rituals that we perform.  

So much so that when you perform those rituals with those events that shaped them in mind, you feel at one with our history, as if you were there. 

Many of these rituals existed two millennia before the Messenger of God.  And were both confirmed and purified by him. 

For the Arabs revered Ibrahim (as), the father of the Prophets two millennia prior to 700CE. They took great pride in him having raised the House of God at Mecca. 

Since that time they had venerated it, and made pilgrimage to it. 

*THE CALL*

وَأَذِّن فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِن كُلِّ فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ

And proclaim among men the Pilgrimage: they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path. (S Hajj, v27). 

And God commanded Ibrahim (as) to announce the Pilgrimage to Mecca amongst all men. Mecca was newly established as a place of destination, by that proclamation. 

And in answer to that three millennia call the Pilgrim when he dons the two seamless and unstitched pieces of cloth, and throws off the World, intones with vigour and loudly -

Labayak Allah Humma Labayk. *1

Here I am O God, here I am. 

In answer to ibrahim’s proclamation that God carried to us down thirty centuries. 

It is the this verbal intonation that marks out a pilgrim, and it is sufficient as a dedication and an intention. 

*WHATEVER MECCCA GIVES TO YOU TAKE, WHATEVER IT LEAVES FOR YOU, YOU LEAVE*

When Ibrahim (as) raised his hands in supplication to God, he asked that God bless the progeny of his second son, Isaac (as) with Prophets and God accepted the supplication and replied “but not those that transgress”. 

And for his first born son Ismail (as), as he had left him in the barren valley of Becca *2, was for God to bless that place. 

This supplication God accepted without qualification. 

That is Mecca, a place of infinite blessing without end. 

And that is how you approach it. 

You approach it as Muhammed (saw) approached it as a conquering hero. 

He did not lead his men that day, but he gave over the command to others that entered the city from its several tracts. 

He himself rode on his camel Qaswa, which whom he had left as a hunted man nine years previously. 

And he (saw) entered Mecca with his head bowed. 

Any that came to petition him that day of conquest, found him ready and willing. And he gave generously to all. *3

That is how you approach Mecca. 

Things will go wrong, and you willingly accept them and pay. *4

You do not complain, for all is the will of God- but most of all at that place. 

And as you enter the Grand Mosque that houses the Kaba that Ibrahim raised, you make your shoulders low and lower your eyes and slump the frame of your body low and forward in the manner of a beggar approaching his master. 

Arrogance resides not just in the chest but also in the shoulders. 

This is the manner of Muhammed’s (saw) approach to Mecca. And as you approach be well to remember it. 

*THE RAML*

After entering the Holy Mosque and making supplication at the sight of the Kaba, then you fully uncover your right shoulder in preparation for the Tawaf. 

Circumbulating the Kaba is the greatest worship, greater than the ordained and heaven sent prayer. And so there is no prayer before the Tawaf. 

For the first three circuits around the Kaba you perform them as Raml, and you recall the Umrah after the treaty of Hubabiyyah. 

At that treaty which God declared as a clear victory, the Muslims were required to depart from the Haram not having completed the sacred rites of the Pilgrimage. Then to return a year later, at which point Quraysh would vacate Mecca so as to allow the Muslims to perform their Umrah unhindered. 

With the Raml we enact the command that the Messenger (saw) gave to his men that day. We move vigorously with our arms swinging, at a trot *5, this to show our fearlessness to the Quraysh that looked on the companions from the mountains surrounding the Kaba. 

So when you do the Raml, imagine you are at that time and place. And ask God to count you amongst those that were there that day with the Messenger (saw). 

*THE PRAYER IN FRONT OF THE KABA*

وَاتَّخِذُوا مِن مَّقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ مُصَلًّى 

“and take ye the station of Abraham as a place of prayer” S2, v125

When we stand for prayer we enter into a state of complete humility, and our normal stance is that our eyes are lowered. 

Abu Haneefa (rm) held that looking on the Kaba is itself worship and that in front of the Kaba when you stand in worship you should look on it. 

Humility in such a state resides in your shoulders. Make them low. And when you stand for prayer in front of the Kaba let your eyes rest on it and drink deeply from its Barakah. 

This is something phenomenal that a lot of Muslims miss. *7

*THE SAI*

After the Tawaf we go to the hillock of Safa to perform the Sai, and to remember the first Muslim family. 

Ibrahim (as) saw in a dream to leave Hagar his handmaiden and his first born son, Ismail (as) in the barren valley of Becca. 

That first family were fully trusting of God. And so it is reported that as Ibrahim (as) left them, he did not look back, but instead supplicated for God to look after them and care for them. 

Hagar also believed that Ibrahim was a Prophet of God and put her full trust in God. 

When Ismail (as), as a young child or even baby, began to cry from thirst. Hagar ran between the two hillocks of Safa and Marwa. 

She was not looking for water for the valley was barren. But she looked for a caravan of nomads who would give her shelter and help her. 

She went seven times between the hillocks in desperation hoping for some succour. In the dip between them she ran because she could not see Ismail (ra). 

When you run remember the desperation that she felt. But then more so remember how God gave her succour. 

For whilst she looked for the company of a caravan, God gave to her a water gushing forth from where Ismail lay*6. And it is this Zam Zam that drew a caravan of people to her. And that was the foundation of Mecca as a destination, and as a town.  

This is the grace of God, that whilst you look to alleviate some hardship, for those that put their trust in God, He sends you something far better than you could have imagined. 

So when you run in the Sai recall the first family and their trials, and how God’s mercy sent them a water unlooked for. 

That is today the unending blessing of Zam Zam that quenches the thirst of the ever growing hoards of pilgrims. 

*THE SHAVEN HEADS*

The honour of the Hajj and the Umrah is the shaven head. 

It is the release from the pilgrim garb of the two unsown pieces of cloth that mark the ihram. And a release from the obligations that make you separate yourself from the World. 

Whenever I shave my head I remember Khalid bin Walid (ra) return to his army clean shaven after passing through the empty quarter (so named because in that dessert nothing can survive, and navigation through it was perilous with the shifting sand dunes.)

Khalid as commander of the Muslim fought many battles in Persia, and was required to join his forces and take command of the joint forces in Syria. 

He dispatched his army headed by a captain and explained that he would come up in the van. Unbeknownst to the rest of the army he couple a couple of captains and rode through the empty quarter, performed the Hajj and rode back. 

The first his men knew of his daring venture was on his return his head clean shaven. 

At Hudabiyyah after the Messenger had instructed his companions to shave their heads as a release from the Ihram, he supplicated thrice that those who shaved their heads be blessed. And at the third included those that cut their hair short. 

To shave your head in the honour of the Umra’ and Hajj. Wear it with honour and dignity. 

*MEDINA*

Try and gain all of your Fardh in the Prophets mosque. 

Behave as if you are one of the Companions of the Blessed Messenger (saw). They would never leave the Mosque until they presented themselves to him and gained permission to leave. 

This in case he needed for them to do something for him. 

So when you go to leave the Mosque present yourself to him and give salutations to him. 

Do not overcomplicate things, just send your salutations to him. 

And then after him the two buried next to him. *8

There are three gates, the Messenger and the two rightly guided are at the second gate, and not the first one. 

*QUBA*

Visiting Quba, the first Mosque built by the Messenger, is the equivalent of an Umra to the Holy Sanctuary. 

I would suggest that you going immediately after the Fajr prayer and gain your Ad-Duha (forenoon) prayer there. 

The journey time is around 10 minutes. 

*UHUD*

The Messenger (saw) said that Uhud is like a mountain of gold for the believers. 

Visit it, contemplate it. 

*FURTHER STUDY*

I will try and write about the Hajj and it’s rituals and how they recall to us our common history. 

But if you have the opportunity to go, then go first for the Umrah to fully experience our history as part of our rituals. 

The above is not a full exposition. 

Please refer to a suitable book for a fuller understanding of our rituals and how and where you should perform them. 

*END*

NOTES-

*1- the full pilgrim chant reads as follows:

*2 the reputed name of Mecca before it became a place of destination. 

*3 this generosity was inherent within Arab culture even predating Islam. 

At Hudabiyyah we see the Messenger (saw) instructing that the sacrificial animals be paraded in front of a notable Qurayshi idolater, so that he could be impressed with the generosity shown by the Messenger (saw) and therefore wish to come more readily to terms of agreement. 

*4 God’s bounty will descend upon Mecca despite of you. But to be a vessel for that descent …. Then wonder at that. 

 

*5 obviously 

*6 The Messenger (saw) reported that had Hagar not sought to dam it, then Zam Zam would have been a river on the Earth. 

*7 One of the arkaan of the Tawaf is that you circumbulate the Kaba without looking on it. The symbolism is phenomenal but I’ll let you deliberate on that. 

*8 Abu Bakr (as) was buried next to the Messrnger (saw) as he was the father of Aisha (ra), mother of the believers. And the Messenger (saw) was buried in her house because that is where he passed on.  The third burial place had been reserved for Aisha (ra) but at the time of Umar (ra) Caliphate he requested her that he be given the place and she (ra) acquiesced. 

Child Q and Abu Ghurayb on the streets of London

*If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide*

Recently I have fought with myself about how to talk with my youngest son in regards to the Metropolitan Police’s clear, and evident, not just racism but more worrying it’s complete disregard for human dignity.

My normal default position would have been “if you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide” which implies complying with their every request. 

And that seems 100% reasonable. 

However what about when that complicity can become part of the crime, what then?

Child Q’s treatment within a space that she considered “safe” is a stark reminder of how backwards this society really is. 

If you are unaware of what happened to this 15 year old girl and how they stripped away her human dignity then there is a link to an appropriate news article, below.

In true Muslim society no such trespass would ever have occurred, accusations do not carry the weight of judgment, nor

retribution, and never should. 

It is clear that the “Presumption of Innocence” here in this society is a fallacy, and worse still that it is a bigoted one at that, where colour/ race/ and religion all play a part. And where yes if you are white and privileged, belonging to that class, then your innocence will be substantiated and not just presumed. 

It is also clear that the “Presumption of Innocence” as a fallacy actually permeates the whole of the Criminal Justice System. From the Police that presume guilt as a means of making “their case”, to the CPS that fail to hold them to account, to the jurors that focus on fear, and the negativity ingrained in their false morality and outrage. 

A false morality and outrage that takes it cue from our press, who so easily and readily stir the peoples’ emotions. 

At times, in our courts, this outrage is simply that the accused happened to be accused, and that therefore there must be good reason for it. That they cannot justify those reasons past the actual accusation is no matter, for justification is always an easy matter once the thing has been decided. 

Henry Fonda’s “Twelve Angry Men” is a great piece of fiction that even I love to watch and elude to as the way Justice should work. But that has been so clearly proved false by numerous miscarriages of justice where the jurors just get carried away with it all. 

A dumbing down of the process that those students of human interaction know only to well as “group-think” *1 

We know of so many clear, and obvious, miscarriages of justice and therefore how many are there that we can never know. 

The non-descript ones that have destroyed the lives of ordinary people like you and me. 

How many innocents languish in our jails because the Presumption of a Innocence just doesn’t work.

How many their families destroyed. Because the Police presumed guilt, and no one thought to question them or hold them to account. 

It should be replaced by something stronger than a presumption, that should permeate not just the end game where everyone has already really been “presumed” guilty. 

And it should be mirrored in the whole of the investigative processes, where at present any lead, in the investigation, that points to innocence are just plainly and fully ignored. 

It is clear that the Police care not, neither for truth, nor justice but for prosecution. And are governed by the same false morality that stirs the public realm. 

How much the better our way, and our society. 

For in Islamic Legal Theory the one making the accusation is required to bring proof, and the honour of the accused is sacrosanct, so that when it is brought into  disrepute by that accusation, then it cannot be saved except with due punishment. 

Here people are not “presumed” to be innocent, but people are in fact “innocent” and falsely accused unless proven otherwise. 

Indeed, the much, much greater harm is done to the fabric of society by the one that falsely accuses as a means of “revenge”, than when the accusation is well founded and proven true. 

In this society nothing happens to those that make an accusation that is not carried through to full retribution by the Criminal Justice System. 

Indeed the Conservatives, the party of law and order, decreed that they are still victims even when no lawful retribution can be lain at the door of those that they accused. That those they accused are never free, and were never innocent even from the outset. 

Then those accusers are above natural law, and are free to accuse and destroy other people’s lives to their own satisfaction. 

In Child Q’s case her very own teachers falsely accused her of cannabis possession, because of a “smell”. 

Nothing happened to them for they were “within” their rights. And how many others have accused just because of a dislike?

However what is much worse is the way that 15 year old Child Q was treated by the Metropolitan Police, for that shows the depravity of their morals. 

After all dislikes are common currency in a society that is fed them daily. 

That accusation was enough to taint her with guilt, which in all likelihood has lived with her past the accusation being proven false. Precisely because the Metropolitan Police made her compliant, and therefore “willing”, in their abuse of her. 

I will never allow my son to become complicit in a crime done against himself. 

So, I have told him that in such cases our essential human dignity is more important than our sinew, flesh and bones.

It is more important than wanting to be, or appear, “reasonable”. 

This does not mean disobedience, but rather non-compliance as a means of reminding the Police that they have no right to destroy our dignity. 

And that they may break our bones, tear at our sinew and body, out of revenge for not bending to their will, but that we will not comply nor obey them in anything that destroys our essential human dignity. 

And that we will then, after the fact, fight them mentally and without let up until they know who we are- 

That we are Muslim, the followers of Muhammed (saw), who never lost heart, and the fire of the religion of God burns deeply in our veins. 

 And they will find no fear in us for God says in the last verse of S Hajj:

وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِاللَّهِ هُوَ مَوْلَاكُمْ فَنِعْمَ الْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ

“and hold fast to Allah, for He is your Maula (Protector of the Believers), what an Excellent Maula (Protector) and what an Excellent Helper!”

And we will teach those that do not know. 

That we, Muslims, are intelligent and fearless, nor rash, neither will we grieve. 

END 

*1 where the IQ of the collective has been shown to drop down below the floor of the lowest individual IQ in the group. 

RESOURCE- SALAAT and Wudoo presentation.

SALAAT- WUDOO PRESENTATION for use within a Mosque Setting. 

• Messenger received revelation over 23 years.
• Early obligation to pray 
• The Quran states that the Whole World is a place of Sujood- prostration and so Muslims do not have to pray in a Mosque. They are obliged to pray and you may see them praying outside, because of that obligation. 
• Manner of prayer and the times of prayer taught by Angel Gabriel. And therefore revealed mode of prayer, sent down and not man made. 
• Messenger (saw) taught us how to pray. 
• A master of pithy sayings: “Salah Miftahon Jannah, Wudoo miftahoon Salaat”: Prayer is the key to heaven, ritual purification is the key to the Prayer. 
• His sayings differ substantially in style from the revealed Quran. 
• Wudoo, ritual purification, described in the Quran. Get them to read translation of S. Maida verse 6. 
• Demonstrate Wudoo with reference to Qur’an and show that the Sunnah explains it and clarifies it. 
• Explain that Wudoo is an act of devotion, in a similar manner to Salaat being an act of devotion. It is a ritual. 
• But Wudoo is also more than this, Muslims for example are advised make Wudoo before every major decision. It freshens then senses as you can feel the water touches all of your senses, and Allah in the Quran declares that He calls to life. 
• So Islam is at core, conscious and deliberate submission. 
• Rifadayn, the outstretched palms, at the start of Salaat symbolise this. 
• Ask them who knows which way we face?
• Ask, for the first 15 years of the Messengers mission does anyone know the direction of the Muslim prayer?
• Get them to read translation of S Baqara v144. 
• In Salaat we begin with al-Fathiha also known as Sab al Mathaani, the seven oft repeated. Explain why it’s called this. 
• Ask if anyone knows the Lords Prayer and ask them to recite it. Explain that there is nothing problematic in the Lords Prayer since it talks about God and not the Trinity. 
• Explain that Muslims believe that there was one message brought by all Prophets. 
• That we believe that they were all Muslims in the operational sense, and so were the Hawareyoon- the term that we use to describe the twelve disciples of Jesus (as). 
• We do not believe that Jesus (as) brought a new message from God. We further believe that he was raised to God and did not get crucified. And that on his return he will confirm the truth of Muhammed (saw) - the last Messenger sent from God with His greatest miracle - the Qur’an. 
• The Qur’an is for Muslims the literal speech of God. That He has preserved through 1400 plus years. 
• Then get them to read al Fathihah- the opening of the Quran- and it’s translation. 
• Explain that Rab, the Lord Provider is similar in context to the Christian understanding of God, the Father- the Provider. 
• Explain that the first verse of Fathihah is about thankfulness and that being thankful is the core to Happiness. 
• Ask if anyone has visited a Muslim Country and how they found the people? Unlike the media impression Muslims are a happy people. 
• Imagine finding something to be thankful for 27 times a day, when all you have is the shirt on your back. 
• Next go through the structure of the Salaat exposing what we say. 
• We stand in prayer, prostrate and sit. And it’s interesting that we sit when we send dua and supplication upon Muhammad (saw), the Messenger of God. 
• He would not suffer for anyone to stand for him. He (saw) was many things, but he was not a King of Men. And foremost he was a teacher. 
• The Quran was revealed over 23 years of his life and to understand it needs a contextual appreciation of his life. 
• His life was well documented and he lived within the fullness of history.  
• If you want to ask any questions then ask it of a Muslim and do not use the internet. You can always come to this Mosque.