Ramadan Reflection Day 23 Constant Change

Day Twenty-three of Ramadan. A reading from the book "The Call of Allah" by Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi. Today we talk about Constant Change. We learn that, although Allah never changes, we are part of a world where there is always change. Day to night, young to old, and all the other changes we experience throughout our time here.

Transcript

As-salamu alaykum,

Peace be with you and Ramadan Mubarak.

Welcome to the University of Sufism's reading of Rosina Fawzia Al-Rawi's book,

The Call of Allah,

A Companion to the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Today I am sharing day number 23 about Taghayyur,

Constant change.

For were they not aware that it is we who had made the night for them,

So that they might rest therein,

And the day to make them see.

Quran 27 ayat 86 Allah created the heavens and the earth,

Night and day,

Life and death,

The feminine and the masculine,

Movement and firmness.

Yet the one remains forever unchanged,

While our world of multiplicity keeps moving in endless cycles of coming and going.

In this context,

Day and night are meant as symbols,

Whereby day is the God-given capacity of human beings to gain insight by means of conscious,

Sensible thinking,

And night the intuition which arises from quietly and peacefully surrendering to the voice of one's own heart.

Allah has made us capable of learning constantly from his creation.

Divide your day in two parts.

Be in the quality of gratefulness,

Shukr,

Inhaling experiences during the day,

And in the quality of remembrance,

Dhikr,

Exhaling in contemplation and inner learning during the night.

During this blessed month,

We are much more aware of the alternation of day and night,

This miracle in which Allah has embedded us.

We experience the opposites in their differences and in their complementarity.

The concept of duality exists to help us find our bearings in this world,

Not to remain stuck in it.

For duality only exists in this world to lead us to unity.

Duality is a world of apparent opposites.

They complete one another and are not really contraries.

Everything is interwoven in an inseparable pattern of energy.

We realize that we are a soul,

Free at its core from the chains of this world,

And at the same time that we are human,

Caught in the duality of good and evil,

Light and darkness.

Our task is to stay connected,

Present,

Regardless of our inner and outer situation,

To remain focused on Him while leading a balanced daily life,

And to behave according to the conditions of the moment.

Allah,

The Giver,

Breathes life into us human beings out of His mercy.

He gives permission to live and endows us with a unique nature.

He puts us on earth on our two feet and stretches our spirit to the highest heaven before sending us on the journey to our true being.

Look for your center because this is where the intimate,

Liberating dialogue begins,

The relationship between man and God.

Nurture your surrender to Allah's commands with your longing and your love for Him.

By recognizing Allah,

We become free and the eternal bond is sealed time and time again.

Am I not your sustainer?

To which they answer,

Yea,

Indeed,

We do bear witness thereto.

Qur'an 7 ayat 172 Everything rests in Allah's hands.

And when our heart opens to this knowledge,

We can see life's transitions and changes as the moving picture of eternity.

This is how human beings live in time,

By bearing witness to His eternity.

The messenger of Allah,

Peace be upon him,

Spoke,

Allah said,

The son of Adam hurts me because he misuses time,

Although I am time.

In my hands are all things and I cause the revolution of day and night.

Allah is the one who opens hearts to the truth and the one who lets knowledge and sincerity flow over our tongues.

He is the one who lifts the veils and grants us the ability to see what is essential in all things and who gives us the strength to be truthful.

Whatever grace God opens up to man,

None can withhold it.

And whatever He withholds,

None can henceforth release.

For He alone is Almighty,

Al-Aziz,

Truly wise,

Al-Hakeem.

Qur'an 35 ayat 2 Ramadan is not only a month which brings us closer to Allah,

It also brings us closer together in our fast.

What a wonderful,

Warm,

And sustaining feeling it is to know that we are going through this month with so many other human beings and experiencing it as individuals embedded in that community.

To some of us,

Allah opens up the doors of knowledge so that we may transmit it.

To others,

He opens the door of riches so that they may give to the poor and the needy.

To some of us,

He grants strength and health so that we may help the weak and the sick.

And to others,

He opens the doors of children so that they may rejoice their eyes and hearts.

So open as best as you can the doors of kindness,

Hope,

And compassion to human beings.

The Messenger of Allah,

Peace and blessings be upon him,

Said,

If any one of you looks at another who is more privileged than him in property and good appearance,

Then he should also look at another who has less and over whom he has been privileged himself.

Life moves in mysterious waves.

Sometimes peaceful and good,

Fertile times emerge.

Other times,

Difficult,

Gloomy times of trials and struggle.

We human beings are embedded in those movements,

Which reveal our possibilities as individuals and collectively as humankind.

The waves bring our colors to light.

The scenario and the circumstances are not in our hands.

Yet as human beings,

We carry both light and darkness within.

And we unite heaven and earth,

Eternity and time,

Thus contributing to balance and imbalance.

Accordingly,

Our deeds result in positive or negative reactions.

In times of abundance,

We're given the possibility to experience gratefulness,

Generosity,

And charity.

In times of difficulties,

Patience,

Frugality,

And steadfastness.

In Islam,

One of our main duties is to purify our soul and refine ourself.

And Ramadan offers us a golden opportunity to do so.

Imam Ali says,

Their sickness is from them,

But they do not perceive it.

And the remedy is within themselves,

But they do not sense it.

You assume that you are a small unit,

But within you is the whole universe.

What you seek is within you,

If you would only reflect.

Allah is the sustainer of the worlds,

As he is also the Lord of their ending.

To know that is to understand that the conditional comes from the absolute and depends on the absolute.

The Day of Judgment is the hope of the patient ones who fought their lower self and were not defeated by their complacent instincts.

On Judgment Day,

Yawm ad-Din,

The oppressors and the oppressed shall be gathered and the opposites will unite because opposites unite in Allah.

On Judgment Day,

We shall be gathered and all injustices shall become visible.

On that day,

All shall be equal,

Kings and subjects,

Rich and poor.

On that day,

We human beings shall be judged for our good and our bad deeds.

The Messenger of Allah,

Peace be upon him,

Came out to us on a night with a full moon and said,

You will see your Lord on the Day of Resurrection just like you see this full moon and you will have no difficulty in seeing him.

Each time carries a special gift,

A special quality.

There is a mystery in every year,

A special light in every month and every day Allah gives us human beings a tajalli.

We know those astounding moments,

Day or night,

When we knock on Allah's door and his tajalli descends upon us in the form of light and gifts which surpass all our expectations.

There are special times such as Sahar,

The hour before Fajr,

Or when the muezzin calls,

Come to redemption.

Come to improve yourself.

Come to happiness and well-being.

And then there are special places like Mecca,

Medina,

And Al-Quds,

Jerusalem.

Those are places Allah has asked us to visit because our souls are nurtured there.

The Messenger of Allah,

Peace and blessings upon him,

Said about the beauty of Fajr and recite the Qur'an during Fajr.

Verily,

Reciting the Qur'an during Fajr is always witnessed.

It is witnessed by the angels of the night and of the day.

And he,

Peace be upon him,

Said,

Angels come to you in succession by night and day,

And all of them get together at the time of the Fajr and also prayers.

When those who have spent the night with you or stayed with you ascend to heaven,

And Allah asks them,

Though he knows everything about you,

In what state did you leave my slaves?

The angels reply,

When we left them,

They were praying,

And when we reached them,

They were praying.

Islam is built on a vision of the world based on the opposites of finiteness and endlessness,

Which actually gives us the impetus to persist on the spiritual path.

God's creation consists of two parts,

This world and the next,

And both belong together like two sides of the same coin.

Neither can exist without the other,

And each lends meaning to the other.

Yet God is greater than his creation,

Which is why,

In the call to prayer,

The Muslims say Allahu Akbar,

God is greater.

Al-Amin said,

The truest poetic verse ever said by a poet is,

Truly,

Everything but Allah is nothing but nothing.

O Allah,

Remind us of what we have forgotten.

Grant us knowledge of that which we do not know yet.

And let every new day lend more kindness and compassion to our deeds,

So that our end may be better than our beginning.

For we human beings deserve both the highest praise and the sharpest criticism.

Practice suggested for today.

Choose very clearly to take Inshallah as your companion for the day.

Inshallah,

God willing.

This formula expresses our ignorance and our dependence on God.

It frees us from all complacency.

It is the formula of serenity and trust in Allah and in the fact that whatever is right and good will happen through him,

Or not,

As the case may be,

And that it is good to be so.

Allah is the destination.

Everything comes from him and returns to him.

There is no existence or future without him.

In everyday life,

This formula is pronounced whenever the future is mentioned.

I'll drive into town tomorrow.

Inshallah.

We'll pass our exam in five days.

Inshallah.

One day,

Nasruddin was on his way to the donkey market.

He carried a purse.

He walked past an acquaintance who asked him,

Where are you heading to,

Nasruddin?

I'm on my way to the market to buy a donkey.

Always say,

Inshallah,

Nasruddin.

But why?

It's quite obvious.

In my pocket,

I have the money to buy a donkey and the market is over there,

Replied Nasruddin before walking away.

However,

Before he reached the market,

He was attacked by thieves.

They hit him on the head and robbed him.

Confused,

Nasruddin set off for home.

He passed the same acquaintance who asked,

What happened,

Nasruddin?

I was on my way to the market.

Inshallah.

Then I was robbed by thieves.

Inshallah.

They hit me on the head.

Inshallah.

And stole my money.

Inshallah.

And now I'm heading home.

Inshallah.

Thank you for joining us for our reading of The Call of Allah,

A companion to the holy month of Ramadan,

With the permission of Rosina Fawzia Alrawi.

Ramadan Mubarak.