Welcome to the University of Sufism's Ramadan reading of Rosina Fawzi al-Rawi's book,
The Call of Allah,
A companion to the holy month of Ramadan.
Today I will be sharing day one about fasting or Siyam.
Our beloved Prophet Muhammad,
Alayhi wasalam,
Said,
By him whose hands is my soul,
The unpleasant smell coming from the mouth of a fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk.
Ramadan is the month during which Allah calls us to continue and perfect our spiritual development.
By calling upon us to give up things which we are usually allowed,
He gives us an opportunity to strengthen our will.
The month of Ramadan starts with letting go.
It is a process which leads us from doing into non-doing and where we surrender to the peaceful flow of contemplation and self-knowledge.
I thank you,
Allah,
And I trust myself to you.
Let me feel your guidance in my heart.
Let me see your mercy in everything.
Strengthen my faith and free me from the illusions of separation and complacency.
It is not easy for the ego or nafs to renounce habits.
It irritates and troubles us and shows us the extent to which we can be disturbed when our needs are not being fulfilled.
We are often slaves to our attachment to our desires and to our needs.
Allah calls upon us to leave those things aside which burden us and prevent us from being truly free.
Letting go of those things,
Because such is Allah's wish,
Surrendering to relinquishing our habits.
If we are ready to leave everything and to allow for devotion bathed in trust,
Taslim,
Then a liberation process can begin.
Ramadan is the month of intimate dialogue with Allah.
It is to break the shell of the mundane world in order to find a new direction.
It is the time to transcend forgetfulness and distraction and to live again consciously the meaning of our existence.
It is to become sensitive again to all the blessings Allah has bestowed upon us.
It is to step out of that prison we have built for ourselves and go beyond those lower human qualities which keep us in chains.
Discipline and abstaining from mundane material food and pleasures,
Drink,
Food,
And sex,
Laying them off like we remove a garment,
Enables us to stand in front of Allah,
The One,
In all our weakness and to recognize that Allah is the As-Samad,
The Absolute to whom all creatures turn to seek help.
When Allah sets boundaries for us,
They are not meant to restrict our freedom but to enable us to pause and step out of the treadmill of our secular world in order to relativize things in our life.
It is the time to focus on our relationship with ourself and with our fellow human beings,
With our environment,
And above all on a relationship with Allah,
The All-Merciful,
Ar-Rahman.
Such is the cornerstone of true surrender.
Fasting is not merely renouncing,
Fasting is also creating in our life and within ourselves a space of awareness open to the mercy and the blessings of Allah.
When we let go of the ego's lower wishes,
We discover that the key to the door of our self-made prison had always been in our hands.
Allah,
Fill my heart with trust,
Grant me surrender and guide me to you.
The practice for today,
Decide to take five minutes at the end of every hour to repeat Allah with all your heart,
Aloud if you're at home,
Silently if you are outside.
You'll find it helpful to set an alarm on your phone or on your alarm clock every 55 minutes.
A teacher once told his students,
Keep knocking on Allah's door and never stop.
For his mercy,
Allah will finally open his doors to those who sincerely seek him.
The mystic Rabia al-Adwiyah heard him as she was passing the mosque and asked,
Was Allah's door ever closed?
Thank you for joining us for day one.
