Faith & Spirituality

In an attempt to cope with my own powerlessness in the face of the Almighty, I needed to revisit some critical notions of what Islam is founded on: submission, the limits of human reason, forbearance, steadfastness, and personal honesty.

One of the benefits of fasting is that it restricts the pathways of Satan within the fasting person’s body and becomes for him as a shield; and thus Satan has no entry-point by which he can enter his heart.

It is time to reap the harvest of our training from Rajab and Sha’ban as we begin the blessed month of Ramadan. Allah reminds us in the Qur'an that these are limited precious days, with an extraordinary opportunity to reach out and connect to Him.

Work and other responsibilities may not allow much time to maintain a special Ramadan schedule of personal devotions, but try to use two brief yet profoundly opportune times to maximize your daily routine for felicitous dividends.

Prayer upon the Prophet ﷺ is a ladder and means of [spiritual] ascent to arrive unto Allah. That is because sending prayers upon him ﷺ frequently engenders the Prophet’s love, and the Prophet’s love engenders Allah’s love, and Allah’s love for the servant attracts the servant to the Divine Presence—with or without an intermediary.

A young companion once came to the Messenger ﷺ asking for permission to fornicate. The companions present at the time erupted with rage and told him to stop talking.

There is a famous story that I learned in my childhood of a man who committed a great sin and then came to an Imam to ask him what to do.

Once the smoke of July 4^th fireworks and grills wafts away it will probably dawn on you that Ramadan is less than a week away. Anxiety about the long hours of fasting and the heat sets in. Long gone is the winter Ramadans of your youth, where you would come home from school and nap for an hour before you broke your fast with Mama’s homemade basbousa.

Once the smoke of July 4^th fireworks and grills wafts away it will probably dawn on you that Ramadan is less than a week away. Anxiety about the long hours of fasting and the heat sets in. Long gone is the winter Ramadans of your youth, where you would come home from school and nap for an hour before you broke your fast with Mama’s homemade basbousa.

We often act on our perceived religiosity by quickly condemning others, as if it somehow comes with the territory. The length of my beard, the perfect placement of my hands in prayer and my impeccable recitation somehow puts me on the higher rank of the spiritual totem pole and I become the judge, jury and executioner of your spiritual life.

Ramadan this year is a spiritual P90x of sorts, taking our bodies and spirits to the limits. Most of us will be fasting sixteen-hour days in sweltering temperatures.

In early September Al-Madina Institute held a spiritual tour of Istanbul accompanied by Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui and Ustadh Moutasem Atiya. Fifty participants partook in event (Al-Madina Institute never exceeds one bus to further enrich the experience).