The 'school' of Ramadan is 'closing'
This ‘school’ is closing! Ramadan is going! Yes. It is going like it did last year. We are heading back gradually to our source, our origin, the Almighty. Thus this month is a signifier. It is a metaphor for life and living. Exactly what is it in our life that is not known by days, days that are numbered? All the stations of life, of grief and happiness, of joy and sadness, of rise and fall, of loss and gain, of pleasure and pain; all these stations, since they are not the destination are, like the month of Ramadan, ‘ayyaaman ma’dudaat- “days that are numbered”.
This ‘school’ is closing! Ramadan is going! It feels as if it was only yesterday that we entered this ‘school’; the ‘school’ of Ramadan. But no! It was not yesterday. It was only about three weeks ago when we entered the “school” of Ramadan. We got admitted into this “school” simply because we possessed, so we thought, the “admission” requirement. We all started to fast twenty one days ago based on our belief that we are “believing” believers. In other words, admission into the ‘school’ of Ramadan depended on one qualification, not two; it is only the “believing believers” who should fast not the other. It is she who believed the “unbelieved” that could and should properly wear the ‘uniform’ of faith, eat the “sahur” and join us for “Iftar”.
He began to fast because he thought he was the receiver of the divine ministration which made fasting in this month an obligation. She began to fast because she thought she must obey the divine injunction that is contained in the last testament. They began to fast on the assumption that they were the “believing believers.”
But you and I know that, like the bedoiun Arabs who came to the Prophet and pontificated about their arrival to the destination- the locale of faith and certainty (Quran 49:14) - not all those who say they are Muslims have actually become believers. Not all those who entered this ‘school’, the school of Ramadan, should actually be here ab initio. He should not be here that Muslim who still doubts the unseen; he should not be in this ‘school’ that Muslim who still led a life of iniquity and utter desecration of entities, be it the temporal and the sacred, that the Almighty has made forbidden long before the onset of Ramadan. I thought fasting is made compulsory not on the Muslims but on believers who know that when they say Allaahu Akbar it is a solemn pledge and declaration in the presence of the Almighty that no other earthly principality should and would enjoy any recognition or obeisance beside Him. I thought he is not a believer but an ordinary Muslim the man who was caught in a State in the Southwest with fresh body parts. When he was caught, he said he only wanted to keep the ‘items’ till the end of the month of Ramadan when he planned to make use of the body parts of his fellow human being for money making rituals. They are indeed believers those who know that be it in Ramadan or thereafter, the Almighty does not and cannot go on holiday or sabbatical. Neither sleep nor slumber overtakes; your Lord is constantly on “call”.
As we begin to prepare for ‘graduation’ from this school, the ‘school of Ramadan’, please keep in mind the following words on marble from those exemplars in Arab-Islamic civilization. Listen to Ibn al-Jawzi: “When the race horse knows that it is nearing the end of the track it exerts all of its effort to win the race. Do not allow the race horse to be clever than you. For verily, deeds are judged by their conclusions” In other words, multiply your acts of worship during the remaining days of this month, the month of Ramadan. May it not be the last for you and me.
Again, remember Hasan al-Basri. He advised you as follows: “Improve your performance in what is left (of time) and you will be forgiven for that which has already passed”. As we all jostle in our spiritual accoutrement in search of the Night of Majesty (Laylat al-Qadr) I pray with you and for you: Allahuma Innaka ‘Afuwwun tuhibul afwa, fa’af anna” aamin.