Ramadhan Reflections 15

We are spiritual beings in material world , We are sent here for training and we will leave behind everything except the skills we developed in training. Bearing this in mind , so many things we thought were so important simply fades into the background .

"You will not attain the Good until you give freely of what you love."
Quran 3:92

Hassan's reflection

We need to ‘walk the talk’. We say we are religious, we say we are on the right path; we think people should be like us. It is time for us to put this into practice. If we have money we might give money, but this is not really what is meant here. Our time might be so valuable to us. In this case we need to spend time helping others. Getting a seat on the train might be what we love as we are tired after a long day & not enough sleep from waking up early and going to bed late from tarawih. We need to put ourselves in others shoes and see that others might be even worse off and need our seat. Giving money is easy; giving what we truly love is very difficult! These are still easy examples. Imagine the time of the prophet when there was jihad and they had to give their lives. Would we really be strong enough for that? As Ramadan winds down it is a time of happiness in that we have learned so much, but also a time of sadness to see that we have so very far to go!


Suriya's reflection

I looked up other translations and found several , this one is interesting, I got it from subagh.com. It is not a standard translation:

3: 92 – By no means can you achieve the true freedom of Self unless you keep open (the resources) to fulfill the necessities of others from what you cherish greatly. And whatever you spend, surely Allah knows about it.

I think it conveys the meaning of the verse in a spiritual context . When we think that what we posses is ours , it is so hard to give anything up. It is only when we realise that all these things we own are not really ours, they are entrusted onto us to use for the greatest good it can bring. Sometimes , like in having a good car that is safe and trustworthy for a person who needs to travel , it is best we keep what we own. THere are many times however , others would put to better use what we leave in closets and drawers hardly touched yet find difficult to give away because we love so much our possessions. The person with true freedom from attachment is the one who can give of their most valuable possessions without blinking an eyelid. Ibn Arabi once gave away a whole mansion that was a gift to him from the King . He just walked out , giving it to a beggar. He was totally unattached to his possessions. I think the theme of this phrase as Hassan points out, is sacrifice of that which is dear to you for the sake of others . Giving something which is not of value to you is not sacrifice and will not result in attainment of that which is good for you. It is a spiritual training of the nafs .


"Say He is Allah - The One, The Eternal" Quran 112:1-2

Hassan's reflection

Allah is the One, eternally. Allah was not born and does not give birth. There is none like Allah. This is actually rather difficult to get my brain around. Allah has always existed and will always exist. My heart knows this as true, but the details of it are beyond my brain’s comprehension. People talk about the big bang theory and whatnot, but there must have been a being causing the bang, this is Allah.

When we are faced with difficulties, when we are faced with people doing things they should not do, bad influences on us, trying to convince us to do things we shouldn’t do, our path is clear. We must say that He is Allah, the One, the Eternal. This is our way of saying that no matter what comes our way, Allah is the One, and the way of Allah is the only way. This is not new, we have not made up something which has not always been around. Allah is eternal. Allah’s way is eternal. The path nabi Muhammad SAW taught us is as relevant now as it was so long ago. We have so much to be thankful for, we cannot think of anything or any path as having the same level or as important as Allah.


Suriya's reflection:

Allah is eternal and so are we. Allah has no beginning and no end, We had a beginning but no end. Having said that, as a material being on a material plain, our time is limited . The chances we are given to develop our souls is limited . Truly all that humankind builds and develops will come to naught in the end . What is left then is what we have done to our souls . The material things around us can be considered the gagdets we need to train and exercise our souls and get it to top form , This phrase Qul Huwallahu Ahad orients us to the eternal nature of our creator and ourselves and orients us towards the true purpose of our earthly materialisations.

We are spiritual beings in material world , We are sent here for training and we will leave behind everything except the skills we developed in training. Bearing this in mind , so many things we thought were so important simply fades into the background .