Alhamdulillah, we are all delighted to again welcome this auspicious time of the year. Alhamdulillah wa skurulillah. The joy of knowing today is 1st Ramadhan. And we all know the value of time, that we are in a state of loss unless we believe, perform righteous deeds and counsel one another patiently.
Somehow, our heart is again inclined to revisit the Ramadhan tausiyah given by the much revered Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani 887 years ago. It's a wonder that we have advanced so far in time and yet when it comes to the crux of spiritual knowledge and practices we need to look so far back in time.
We are people of akhiru zaman. Contrary to the spirit of Ramadhan, we tend to think about eating even more in this fasting month and we have the tendency to overeat too. Perhaps we should evaluate ourselves as to where we stand compared to the group of people which Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani had described in his lecture in Ramadhan 545 H.
He said:
"What a vast difference between these two subjects and situations. The people [of the Lord] are intelligent. They say 'we do not consume our shares of this world on the street, nor in our houses. We eat in His presence only! ' The abstinent (zahidun) will eat in Paradise, while the knowers (arifun) eat in His presence even when they are still in this world. As for the lovers (muhibbun), they eat neither in this world nor in the hereafter. Their food and drink are their intimate friendship (uns), their nearness to their Lord (subhanahuwata'ala) and their vision of Him. They have traded this world for the hereafter then they have traded the hereafter for their nearness to their Lord, the Lord of this world. Those who are truthful (sadiqun) in their love for him have traded both this world and the hereafter in exchange for His countenance. They wished to have Him, to the exclusion of all else, so when the buying and selling was over, generosity prevailed and He returned this world and the hereafter to them as a gift..."
Perhaps we have been eating too much that we are oblivious to this kind of knowledge. May Allah forgive us. May Allah increase our knowledge and grant us understanding that we are here on this earth not just to fill up empty bellies. May Allah teach us the true hikmah of fasting.
Source:
'The Sublime Revelation' as translated by Allahyarham Muhtar Holland.
Credit Brother Ruslan Moore of Al Baz Publishing
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