The Blessed Month Of Ramadan And Reform 9/10
Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-‘Alamin, wa afdhal as-salawti wa 'tamu at-taslim 'ala Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammad, wa ahlih, at-tayyibin, at-tahirin. When we are speaking about reform and self-purification and self-cleansing, we remember that we are on a journey towards Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, and it is a struggle, it is a difficulty. It is jihad. Jihad un-Nafs, that is what it is called.
Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, mentions in the Holy Quran: Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. "Ya ayyuha al-Insan, innaka kadihun ila Rabbika kad-han, fa mulaqih" (84:6). O human being. You are going to be struggling towards your Lord until you meet Him. "Fa mulaqih" Liqa', liqa' Allah. Ultimately, that is what it is that we want to get to. That is the level that we want to achieve. We want to achieve liqa' Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. With reform, with journeying, with that, as we call it, wayfaring or Sayr wa as-Suluk. Whatever you want to call it, it is all to do with how you are able to better yourself, how you can realize that they are in this "safar" in this journey.
If you remember in another episode, a few segments ago, I mentioned the Verse in the Holy Qur'an that when it comes to Taqwa, and the reason, the Hikma as to why we fast, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala said: "la'allakum tattaqoon" (2:183), so that you are able to attain righteousness and piety and becoming wary of Almighty God. You can do that through fasting. And then I mentioned the Ayat: "wa tazawwadu" (2:197), tazawwadu basically means prepare your provisions, prepare your supplies, "fa inna khair az-zad, at-Taqwa" (2:197). And the best of provisions is being wary of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.
What does Taqwa mean? Taqwa basically simply means that you feel the presence of God in everything that you do, that you remove those traits that you should be removing, the negative characteristics that you know that are bad: pride, envy, gluttony, all these other things that you know are bad. And the reason why I mentioned gluttony is because one of the things that we come across when the blessed month of Ramadan happens is our attention goes, sometimes our attention goes to other not so important areas. Our attention goes to other areas which pretty much conflict with the very reason as to why a person should be fasting.
You are fasting because you want to feel the "ju'u", the hunger and the "atash", the thirst of those who are poor. But yet we might have a very long and large and decorative table full of a wide variety of foods. Now what have we done with that gluttonous kind of traits that some of us might have when our obsession is with foods? Of course, that means that until now, that level of understanding, the value of fasting has not yet entered into our heart, and that is what reform means, and that is what we need to do as far as the change is concerned. Wa al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-‘Alamin.
