In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.
As fast as it came, Ramadhan is departing, leaving behind those who yearn for its return. This year, I have had a scare when my aunt was in ICU. I also heard news of the deaths of many a friend's relatives. There is no guarantee that anyone, much less me, will meet the blessed month again or even meet the end of this Ramadhan as tonight marks the 29th night.
Unlike the past few years, alhamdulillah this year, I have been more settled as I have been blessed with a place to call my own. It also means that quite a number of the Iftars are spent in solitude. I, therefore, decided to take the opportunity this Ramadhan to vary my routine - or perhaps create a new routine. I decided that I would focus on a particular Surah (memorise it, understand its meaning, internalise its teachings) and also continue the previous tradition of striving to finish a book. Alhamdulillah, this year, I managed to finish a book - Reasoning with God by Khaled Abou El-Fadl and am three quarter into memorising Surah Ar-Rahman. Inshallah, I will finish what I set out to do with Surah Ar-Rahman because Ramadhan is only the start of the journey.
What lessons have I learned from this Ramadhan, I ask myself as I prepare to bid goodbye to this cherished companion? I think the one main lesson is 'Mizan' or balance. Before I go into all sorts of philosophical rhetoric, the most recent thing about balance that God taught me is about physical balance. I fell ill the last two days because I was so exhausted these past weeks - a combination of no sleep at night, 19 hours fast during the day and working (also travelling part of it) - I wasn't practising balance. There has to be balance - my physical self has as much a right on me as my spiritual self. And that was the wisdom of why God gave dispensation to travellers with regards to fasting.
Surah Ar-Rahman talks about God setting up the balance so that we shouldn't transgress the balance. Not only that, we are urged to establish the balance in justice. If not, then God will balance it for us (like when I fell ill) because Balance is a feature in all of God's creations and that Balance should be maintained. I look at the world around me today and wonder if we have actually upset the balance and if reactions to our actions are actually God's way to redress the balance before the Final Hour. I was watching a documentary a few days ago regarding how animals are adapting to our interference and encroachment of their territories. By upsetting the ecological system, we upset the balance and yet the ecological system is adapting to compensate for it. Being physics trained, I remember Newton's laws of motion - one of them being: for every action is an equal and opposite reaction, thus maintaining the balance demanded by God. And so, you can see today with all the various extremism, it just breed more extremism in its counterparts.
Muslims are called by God to be the people of middle path (2:143):
Today, there are many issues confronting the community - we cannot afford to forget this importance of a balanced response, that is grounded in justice and mercy. As I finish reading the book "Reasoning with God," I was struck by a few passages he wrote on the importance of balance:
May God continue to guide us to be on the middle path as we move beyond this blessed month. Ameen.
As fast as it came, Ramadhan is departing, leaving behind those who yearn for its return. This year, I have had a scare when my aunt was in ICU. I also heard news of the deaths of many a friend's relatives. There is no guarantee that anyone, much less me, will meet the blessed month again or even meet the end of this Ramadhan as tonight marks the 29th night.
Unlike the past few years, alhamdulillah this year, I have been more settled as I have been blessed with a place to call my own. It also means that quite a number of the Iftars are spent in solitude. I, therefore, decided to take the opportunity this Ramadhan to vary my routine - or perhaps create a new routine. I decided that I would focus on a particular Surah (memorise it, understand its meaning, internalise its teachings) and also continue the previous tradition of striving to finish a book. Alhamdulillah, this year, I managed to finish a book - Reasoning with God by Khaled Abou El-Fadl and am three quarter into memorising Surah Ar-Rahman. Inshallah, I will finish what I set out to do with Surah Ar-Rahman because Ramadhan is only the start of the journey.
What lessons have I learned from this Ramadhan, I ask myself as I prepare to bid goodbye to this cherished companion? I think the one main lesson is 'Mizan' or balance. Before I go into all sorts of philosophical rhetoric, the most recent thing about balance that God taught me is about physical balance. I fell ill the last two days because I was so exhausted these past weeks - a combination of no sleep at night, 19 hours fast during the day and working (also travelling part of it) - I wasn't practising balance. There has to be balance - my physical self has as much a right on me as my spiritual self. And that was the wisdom of why God gave dispensation to travellers with regards to fasting.
Surah Ar-Rahman talks about God setting up the balance so that we shouldn't transgress the balance. Not only that, we are urged to establish the balance in justice. If not, then God will balance it for us (like when I fell ill) because Balance is a feature in all of God's creations and that Balance should be maintained. I look at the world around me today and wonder if we have actually upset the balance and if reactions to our actions are actually God's way to redress the balance before the Final Hour. I was watching a documentary a few days ago regarding how animals are adapting to our interference and encroachment of their territories. By upsetting the ecological system, we upset the balance and yet the ecological system is adapting to compensate for it. Being physics trained, I remember Newton's laws of motion - one of them being: for every action is an equal and opposite reaction, thus maintaining the balance demanded by God. And so, you can see today with all the various extremism, it just breed more extremism in its counterparts.
Muslims are called by God to be the people of middle path (2:143):
And thus We made you a community of the middle way, so that you should be witnesses over the people, and the Messenger a witness to you.And what is beautiful is in the preceding verse, God talks about the straight path (2:142):
Say, "To Allah belongs the east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a straight path."The straight path is therefore linked to the middle path - a path of balance. Whenever I read this, I am reminded of the tightrope walker I saw earlier this month in the park, swaying slightly to one side then another as she walks across the rope. Suddenly swaying too much, she fell off the rope. Like a good tightrope walker, we need to maintain balance, perhaps leaning slight one way or another but never too far that we fall from that middle/straight path.
Today, there are many issues confronting the community - we cannot afford to forget this importance of a balanced response, that is grounded in justice and mercy. As I finish reading the book "Reasoning with God," I was struck by a few passages he wrote on the importance of balance:
Shari'ah is an ongoing discourse on how to be a good Muslim within a communal system and a metanarrative on being a good human being within a human society. As the history of Islamic law guilds demonstrates, it is not important that Muslims agree on the same legal determinations or laws. What is important is that they recognize shared common standards of virtue and godliness. Ultimately, the constituent elements of these common standards are a subject for another book, but at a minimum, the ultimate objective is peace, repose, and tranquility (i.e. salam). But this salam cannot exist without justice (qist), balance and proportionality (mizan and tawazun), and compassion, love and care for one another (tarahum, tahabub, and takaful)...A Shari'ah-oriented society reasons with God - it consistently visits and revisits the rational and textual indicators to stay on the sirat al-mustaqim (straight path) knowing full well that anyone who claims to have an exclusive claim over the sirat has by definition deviated from it. As the Qur'an points out, the blessing of the sirat comes as an act of grace that can never be taken for granted. Therefore, reasoning with God means endlessly searching and engaging the divine with the hope and belief in God's continued guidance and grave.The balance must comes from our continued interaction with God through 'rational and textual indicators' - which I take to mean interacting with and pondering over the Qur'an, the Sunnah and also the world around us, bearing in mind that the objective is 'salam' for and with all beings, including our own selves. As Ramadhan, the month of the Qur'an, draws to a close, I remind myself that the balance within and without can only come through active participation and interaction with God, primarily through His Book, but also through every reminder He extends my way. Passivity will only lead to the loss of balance...just as the tightrope walker lost her balance when she didn't correct herself after leaning too far.
May God continue to guide us to be on the middle path as we move beyond this blessed month. Ameen.
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