As Ramadan 2018 ends

The greatest respite this Ramadan has brought is the muffling, if not the silencing, of the mental white noise crackling with random, tangential thoughts and incessant self-vilification. Fasting does that to you! Its not just about a physical detox or moral realignment. The realisation of just how much bandwidth inner chatter was taking up was chastening,  even shocking.

Taken by me at Sigtuna, Sweden, August 2017.

Released from the battle with the sabotaging monkey-mind,  this month of fasting has brought a sense of floating on a deep pool of cool water. The absence of jolts to the adrenals from cups of caffeine has doubtless assisted with this descent into deep calm. It seems inevitable, however, once Eid is over - even on Eid itself - that the seductive aromas of roasted coffee and frothy cappuccinos will reclaim me and once again fuel this inner static. Perhaps, to be fair, one should not blame the caffeine. The biochemistry of thought and overthinking is a little more complicated than that. But for now a profound sense of calm predominates and it is beautiful.

And so as the last week of Ramadan unfolds, and  we make our supplications on the 'Nights of Determination' (layāli al-qadr), the inner stillness is so...well, still, that it is hard to invoke desires or wants, however necessary or noble. Instead, a deep acceptance of things as they are stands sentinel. Whether I like them or not is immaterial; I accept them as part of the perfect order of cause and effect. All the loathsome imperfections and injustices wrought by human cunning, perfidiousness, treachery, greed, obliviousness, and power mongering remain in play. But the whole concatenation is one perfect cacophony.

Nothing is static. Everything is either moving overtly or covertly towards or away from Allah.  Whatever moves towards that eternal light brings harmony, goodness, beauty. Whatever moves away from that towards the darkness of the lower orders brings suffering, despair, hopelessness -  innā hadaynāhu 's-sabīla, immā shākiran, immā kafūran: 'We have shown him the way, he is either grateful or in denial' (76:3).

My sincere wish is for that state of gratitude to prevail, long beyond this month of withholding and abstention. Shukr (gratitude) sweetens even the bitter lessons life teaches us.  Equally sincere is my  hope for the space created between thought, emotion and passing state to remain. Fasting brings with it a loosening of fixations - and that is liberating. My last du'a is for the cloak of Allah's mercy and forgiveness to fall over me and keep falling over me. There will never be a time when I am not in need of it.

Swap the Perils for the Pearls of 'Allahu Akbar'

Image from https://www.instagram.com/arabic_calligraphy_/

Swap the Perils for the Pearls of ‘Allahu Akbar’

What’s the betting these days on the chances that if a bearded bloke wearing a fat padded jacket ran into a supermarket or  cafe in Paris and yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ all the shoppers would duck and hit the floor? Or in any city for that matter?

It seems all these ‘jihadi’ attacks are preceded by invoking the name of God most High in the Arabic language.

This distresses me.  I feel robbed. Sickened. They are making this profound phrase  - ‘Allahu Akbar’ – hateful and to be feared. The circumstances in which Allah’s beautiful name is invoked to such violent and misdirected ends distress me beyond words.

Yet this simple phrase lies at the core of Islamic understanding into what it means to be human. For now it has been wrenched from its ontological root bed and is being used to herald inhumane actions of the most despicable kind. 

To any Muslim worldwide the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ state a truth of belief: Allah is Most Great, greater than whatever can be seen or imagined, greater than any other power or force. It gives comfort to Muslims who strive to do their best, who may err, who need forgiveness for their errors, who need to remind themselves that at all times, in all places and circumstances, ultimately Allah prevails over all existence. No matter how sublime or special, vast or deep, astonishing or powerful, marvelous or wondrous are any of our individual or collective achievements, or any of the delights of this planet, Allah is yet greater than all these qualities.

We recite ‘Allahu Akbar’ several times a day in our ritual prayers to punctuate each movement. When we first stand in prayer and raise our hands up level to our ears, palms facing outward in a show of surrender, and say the takbir ul-ihram, we are placing ourselves firmly in a position of surrender and reverence for the power that created us, shaped us, endowed us with consciousness and conscience and will hold us accountable for every action, thought and breath.

When we say ‘Allahu Akbar’ we announce our recognition that our individual power and ability is conferred upon us by a higher force, and it is to align ourselves to that force that we utter it solemnly and with relief. Above all this force is one of mercy and compassion: Kataba ‘ala nafsihi ’r-rahma – ‘Allah has inscribed or ordained upon himself Mercy’ (6:12 & 54). In one sacred hadith (hadith qudsi), He declares ‘My Mercy predominates over my wrath.’

‘Allahu Akbar’ shares with ‘la ilaha illah’Llah’ the same power to negate at a profound level the dualism that underlies our experienced existence, and return us from a state of apparent separation to integrated unification.

What kind of god is it that the destructive ‘jihadi’ serves? A god of nihilism? Who appointed them as the apocalyptic arbiters of a truth that even Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) did not prescribe or demand be testified to by such savagery? By what right? By what authority? To pin the name of God onto acts that are blatantly ungodly is devastatingly cynical. Such terrorism is born out of a culture of despair, hate, rage, outward-looking blame, a cankered victim mentality and a frighteningly distorted understanding of how a Muslim should uphold Islam. Equally this horror story inversion of Islam did not come into existence without the assistance of an unholy communion between spiritually moribund architects of jihadi nihilism in concert with modern industrial powers playing God, funding and training these murderous creatures and setting them loose from Pandora’s box.

Give me back the pearl I know is in ‘Allahu Akbar’. Humanity is one in origin and end. Animated by one common soul energy, we are manifested through an infinitely dazzling kaleidoscope of humanity. Let the light and lustre of ‘Allahu Akbar’ shine, through me, through all who love Allah, who love goodness, beauty, compassion, cooperation, tolerance. In the paraphrased words of our Prophet Muhammad (S) – which echo so many other sages throughout the ages -  no man fulfills his purpose unless he loves for his neighbor what he loves for himself.