As Muslims, we have been blessed with the fruits of Ramadan, some of
which we have mentioned above. We should not hesitate to work to share
those fruits with others. The inner-peace, serenity, clarity of vision,
and focus a conscious Muslim experiences in his or her life
By: Zaid Shakir
The
Month of Ramadan is upon us. During this special time, we should all
reflect on the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. Those of us who
live here in the West have been blessed with many material bounties that
are unimaginable to many of our co-religionists in the East. The amount
of food we enjoy and unfortunately the amount that many of us waste, the
expansiveness of most of our homes, our ready ability to own cars,
trucks, and vans, our easy access to higher education, our ability to
marry at a young age, all of these blessings and many others are
incomprehensible to many Muslims in faraway lands struggling to live
from day to day.
Perhaps the greatest blessing we enjoy is the blessing of security. This
is a great blessing that many people take for granted. The ability to be
safe in one’s home, to walk the streets without fear of assault, to
travel freely down the highways and byways without fear of brigandage or
harm to our person or loved ones, the ability to rest comfortably at
night without fearing a sudden deadly intrusion, or a violent explosion
as a projectile tears through the roof or walls of our dwelling visiting
us with hell on earth. This is a great, expansive blessing.
God mentions that security is one of the great blessings He bestowed
upon the Quraysh, the people of our Prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessings of God upon him. He mentions in the Qur'an,
Therefore, let them worship the Lord of this [Sacred] House; he who has
fed them, warding off from them hunger; the one who has made them secure
from fear. (106:3-4)
This latter blessing, the great blessing of security, the blessing that
allows us to enjoy all other blessings, should never be taken for
granted, for it can be taken away at any moment, and we could be cast
into the throes of terrible tribulation with sudden swiftness. One of
the ways to perpetuate the blessing of security and the many other
blessings we enjoy is to express our deep thanks for them. That
expression of thanks lies in our being good productive citizens, it lies
in our faithful devotion to our Lord, and it lies in our demonstrating
to people the good of our religion through our actions before we
endeavor to do so with our words. It lies in our endeavoring to share
our blessings with those who are less fortunate than us.
The details relating to how we do these things are known to all of us
and are as numerous as each and every one of our individual lives. Those
details are revealed to us by God when we endeavor to be sincere in our
service, true in our devotion, honest in our conviction to assist our
fellow human beings. Ramadan is an excellent time to start for those of
us who have been limping down the road of life oblivious to the
blessings we enjoy; lacking any consciousness of the obligations those
blessings impose on us. Ramadan focuses our appreciation of the food and
other material blessing we enjoy by allowing us to experience at a
personal level the reality of deprivation. Ramadan focuses our devotion
to God by facilitating heightened levels of devotional acts by couching
them in a communal manifestation.
Ramadan focuses our sincerity to God, for it is centered around fasting,
the one act of worship it is impossible to "show off" with before other
human beings, for at the end of the day, God alone knows if we are truly
fasting. Ramadan, if we allow it to do so, focuses our spiritual
energies by reintroducing the great blessing of the Qur'an into our
lives. Finally, Ramadan focuses our attention on the centrality of
charity in our lives, by encouraging us to greater levels and acts of
charity during this time, a time when our beloved Prophet, peace and
blessings of God upon him, the most generous of all people ordinarily,
was excessively generous.
Our Prophet, Muhammad, peace upon him, after being blessed with so much
by God, was instructed to share those blessings by proclaiming them to
others. We read in the Qur'an,
As for the blessings of your Lord; proclaim them! (93:11)
This year Ramadan will occur during the height of one of the most
critical election campaigns in American history. One feature of the
campaign, owing the candidacy of Senator Barack Hussein Obama, has been
a lot of negative attention focused on Islam and Muslims. In light of
this sad reality, many Muslims are inclined to take measures that remove
themselves or their religion from the spotlight. This is a mistake.
Although the negative attention is a reality, it does not hide the fact
that many people are crying out for Islam. As Muslims, we have been
blessed with the fruits of Ramadan, some of which we have mentioned
above. We should not hesitate to work to share those fruits with others.
The inner-peace, serenity, clarity of vision, and focus a conscious
Muslim experiences in his or her life, all of which are highlighted
during Ramadan, is a great blessing we should be hastening to share with
others. Now is the time for us to proclaim the blessings God has
bestowed upon us.
Let us translate the heightened focus on God, and our appreciation for
His blessings into heightened levels of servitude to Him and to our
fellow human beings. If we can do that as an entire community, with
ample conviction, God will continue to shower His blessings down upon us
and He will bless us to be secure in our lives and property, just as He
has blessed us to be secure from material want. Such blessings are
commensurate with the best community raised up for humanity (3:110).
However, for the manifestation of those blessings to be real, our
service to God and to our fellow humans has to be real. So let us
proceed through this blessed month with consciousness, willing devotion,
and sincerity. Let us also proclaim to all and sundry the blessings God
has bestowed upon us. By doing so we will express our appreciation to
our Lord, and work to perpetuate the many blessings He has bestowed upon
us.
Ramadan Mubarak!
Imam Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic
scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the
civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and
poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work.
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