Ramadan Quran Reflection Day #4

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day #4 (39:53)

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ
الرَّحِيمُ

“Say: "Oh my Servants who have transgressed against their own souls, do not despair of God’s mercy! Verily, God forgives all sins. Indeed He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.””

Watch video here:
https://youtu.be/VO8e5Lmy2B4

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day 3

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day #3 (3:159)

Ever wake up to a kid emptying their entire piggy bank on the pillow right next to your ear? Well, that happened to me this morning, and let me tell you: it’s not so fun. Now, my reaction to that occurrence, well let’s just say there was room for improvement. I’ll give myself a B-.

It reminded me though of the story I heard last night at our local mosque. Prophet Muhammad was in the mosque with many of his companions when a Bedouin walked in and began urinating in the corner. The mosque being a place of worship and purity angered the companions where they wanted to immediately lash out at the man for such an atrocity. The prophet, however, being the wise considerate man he was, stopped them in their tracks. He would handle the situation for them. After the man was finished and about to leave, the prophet kindly advised him that urinating shouldn’t happen in this place of purity and prayer. The man understood and never repeated that mistake.

When we react with anger, not only do we cause emotional backlash and disconnect, but it will also hardly ever cause changed behavior. If you want changed behavior, you respond according to our prophetic model, with kindness and empathy. One of the hardest things to do is control ourself in that moment, but when you take a step back and try to empathize with that person, and when you know that anger won’t help them change their behavior, then you’ll realize that the best way to foster healthy communication and growth is to respond with kindness.

The prophet was extremely talented in this. Empathy and kindness are what he was known for. And the Quran affirms that in this verse:

وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لانْفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ
“Had you been harsh and hard-hearted, they would have turned away from you.”

If you want to help the person you’re about to react to, then know that the only way to do so without hurting them and causing friction or resentment is to RESPOND with kindness and empathy, as our beloved prophet taught us through his words and action.

So, for you coins in the piggy bank, I’m ready for you tomorrow. Watch me.

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day 2

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day #2 (65:2-3)

Divorce. A word not many in our time like to hear. It comes with so many negative repercussions in our society. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

One of my favorite statements in the Quran happens to be in the middle of two verses in the chapter of divorce.

‏‏وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ
“And whoever is mindful of God will be shown a way out. And He will provide for him in ways beyond imagination. Whoever puts his trust in God then He will be enough for him.”

This chapter is filled with hopeful statements of ease, compassion, hope and acceptance. Allah is repeatedly saying that He will help facilitate a way to heal and get back up again. He is simply asking to be mindful of Him. Stay true to what He asks of you, and He will suffice you. Situations like divorce can get so messy and it’s easy for people to forget that there is a God who will judge. It’s easy to forgo what’s right and go with what is easy. And this is why this chapter is so important. Don’t neglect your duties to God. Fulfill your religious obligation, and you will see how He will get you out of this hardship.

Reading these statements today made me realize how perfectly placed they are in this chapter. Divorce shouldn’t be hard and impossible. It should be a means to find hope in Allah again, so long as we stay true to our deen and its commandments. 

Ramadan Reflection Day 1

Ramadan Quran Reflection Day #1: (42:25)

Who is God? What are His main characteristics pertaining to His servants? When we know who He is, we are comforted to begin this journey of Ramadan vulnerably and wholeheartedly trusting that He will accept us for who we are. God describes Himself in this short verse in Chapter Al-Shura:

وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَعْفُو عَنِ السَّيِّئَاتِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ
“And He is the One who accepts repentance from His servants, and forgives sins, and knows what you do.”

This is who God is. He is the One who will take you in after you have slipped, who will accept you with your flaws, and will not judge you because of your past. Unlike most relationships of our time, our relationship with God is very unconditional. In this verse, as He attributes us to Him saying we are His servants, He then affirms that He will accept our repentance. What does that allude to? That we WILL sin. We WILL make mistakes. But the key is that He will still love us and accept us regardless.

Imagine yourself running in a race but then find yourself veering off the path, then suddenly someone takes the torch from you and tells you “I got it from here.” That is God in our life. All we have to do is seek Him, connect with Him, beg Him, and run to Him in repentance.

Next, Allah says He will completely erase our sins as if they never existed; a spiritual cleansing. A scholar was once asked what particular sins were included in this verse, and as the questioner kept listing sin after sin, the scholar kept repeating this part of the verse, “And He forgives all sins.” When we come to Him with sincerity, God meets us with unmatched acceptance.

The final words in this verse are what strike me the most. Allah is saying “And He knows what you do.” Wow. Allah knows how messed up we are and He is STILL wanting to forgive us. He knows every single time we’ve slipped up and is still time after time, meeting us with the same care and mercy. His knowledge of our actions isn’t changing His immense characteristic of love and forgiveness for us. It is always unequivocally there.

Our Prophet

I imagine weights of immense responsibility being put on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with this one verse:

يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ وَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ
“Oh Messenger, deliver all that has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so then you would have failed to deliver His message...” - Quran (5: 67)

What does a person do with such weights? A person of honor like our prophet would carry them, lift them with all his might, and carefully put them in their place. He fulfilled his duty. He did however have another option though. The verse clearly says that the other option was to not fulfill God’s message. But the existence of that option didn’t debilitate the Prophet from his mission. It made him work harder to get it done right. Talk about working under pressure.

Can you imagine him hearing this verse being recited out loud by his fellow companions? Or by his wife even? Or his children? Imagine that pressure. But that pressure kept him going to spread the message of God.

His wife Aisha is reported to have said that if there was one verse that the prophet would have wanted to hide from the Quran it would have been this one statement. Can you imagine how overwhelming this verse was on him?!

While failure was a possible outcome, Prophet Muhammad knew the only thing he could do to prevent failure was continue to work. And I believe that’s a lesson for us all: Do not allow the possibility of failure to stop you from persisting on what you’re working toward. As you keep pushing, the possibility of failure surely diminishes, and success becomes unquestionable.

Look at the legacy of Prophet Muhammad today and the mercy he has embedded into this world. Certainly, he has fulfilled the message, and we are witnesses to that fact. 

Speaking up to wrong

In the name of freedom and modernity, it’s easy to forgo core principles and moral values of our faith. We see wrong and instead of doing something about it we use excuses like “let people be themselves” or “they’re free to do as they want.” While those statements may hold some truth in a way, that is not a reason we don’t help them pave the way out of wrong, or at minimum try.

In Surah al-mai’dah, chapter 5 of the Quran, verse 79, God speaks of a nation and their main characteristic that steered them astray from His way. The verse states:
كَانُوا لَا يَتَنَاهَوْنَ عَن مُّنكَرٍ فَعَلُوهُ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ
“They would not discourage each other from the immorality in which they used to indulge...”

The main wrong these people did was simply not speak out against the wrong they saw. Injustice didn’t bother them. Toxicity and abuse were ignored. Corruption, lying, stealing, and immorality became the norm. When we forgo one of these principles, just one, we risk losing them all, like this nation did.

What’s even more interesting is that this is the only verse in the Quran that uses the word نهي (to forbid) in this form. It is used in the reciprocal verb form, meaning it takes at least two people to do. So it wasn’t just one person ignoring the wrong they saw and letting it slip by. It was a group of friends or communities maybe. If a friend engages in injustice or immorality, it shouldn’t mean we should be okay with it too, or else we could be engaging in this same verb that led a whole nation astray.

I pray we can hold steadfast to our core values and principles, lest we lose ourselves. 

3:179

مَّا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَىٰ مَا أَنتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىٰ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ
“God won’t leave the believers in the weak position they are now in until He separates what is filthy from what is wholesome, nor will God give you insight into what is beyond human perception...”

These verses came down at the time when the early believers at the time of Prophet Muhammad were let down after a defeat by the polytheists of Makkah. They lost many courageous men and in turn, many who survived began questioning the faith. Here, God is telling them that sometimes we undergo these situations to purify our own selves, in order to filter the bad from the good within us.

And what’s interesting is that in fact this did occur at their time. A lot of evil was exposed because of this defeat. People were revealed for who they were. The hypocrites became known. The true believers became known. A lot of good came from defeat.

God also tells them that they were not given insight beyond human perception. At the end of the day, happenings boil down to God and His infinite wisdom. If we could see the whole picture, we may not be as strong and courageous as we are today.

Wherever you are in life, wherever I am, as far from perfect as it is to us, it’s there because we lack that insight. It exists because we lack the tools needed to filter what’s wholesome and what’s not. Perhaps if we could indeed see that big picture, our faith wouldn’t be questioned. But that’s the whole point. Will we trust?