God-Consciousness After Ramadan

God-Consciousness After Ramadan

Opening and Introduction to the Islamic Calendar

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu al-mubarak. Alhamdulillah, Allah in the Quran says,

They ask you about the new moons, say they are ways of determining your time, and they are for the hajj, in other words, the ibadah that you do.

And the sighting of the new moon has historically been the way that the Muslims have always determined the months, despite the fact that they were quite capable of doing calculations for centuries. The Greeks could calculate eclipses with great exactitude. And we're living in a time when we have incredible technology, ability to monitor the planets now that has never existed.

The Wonder of Creation and the Day of Doubt

In fact, for centuries, we only thought there were five planets. Now we know that there are nine in this solar system, possibly more. And now they're discovering, they estimate that there are four billion planets just in our galaxy. Four billion planets, not stars, planets. So these are miraculous days. But despite that, the Prophet ﷺ determined that the day, the 29th day, when you go out to see on the 30th day, when you go out to see the moon, the Prophet ﷺ called that day the day of doubt.

In other words, the 30th day is a day of doubt because there is no certainty whether you can determine the sighting of the moon or not. And according to the Naval Observatory website, it says that, and this is one of the highest scientific bodies for observation of the heavens, according to their website, it is not possible with certainty to determine the sighting, a naked eye sighting of the moon in the first 24 hours. And this is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ called it, the day of doubt.

The Importance of Moon Sighting

And to eliminate that day is to say that there is no doubt anymore. And it's still not true. So those Muslims who are holding to the tradition, fast when you see the moon, is a sight, it has to be with the eye. So the Fuqaha determined that a group, not everybody has to see it, but a group should see it. And they end the month, according to our Fuqaha, it has to be a jama'u ghafeer, according to the majority, you have to have a large number. Two days ago we went out to look at the moon and we did not see the moon.

I had binoculars and you couldn't see it here. And there was one report in South America of three people that saw it. I personally did not feel comfortable and other people. And so I want to commend the SBIA for taking that position just because if you hasten an ibadah before its time, it's unacceptable. But if you delay an ibadah

for certainty, you get a reward. So it's only, all you can do is benefit by just waiting an extra day to have certainty.

Signs of the End Times

And when we went out last night to look at the moon, it was a tiny sliver, even last night it was a tiny moon.

And so to say that that was a second day moon, the Prophet ﷺ said, the end of time will not come until people say when they see the first day moon, this is two days old. And the Prophet ﷺ said that that's going to be one of the signs of the end of time.

Now having said that, the people who broke their fast yesterday, inshallah that's valid because they were following their leadership. And those who give fatwa, it's on them because not everybody is responsible. So I'm not in any way saying that it was invalid, I'm just saying that I certainly feel more comfortable that I completed 30 days. And I praise Allah.

Ramadan as a School of Learning

The end of Ramadan is an important time because Ramadan is a madrasa, it's a school. It's a school to learn certain behavioral patterns that you are supposed to take into the rest of the year. And so I want to remind myself and all of you that the Lord of Ramadan is also the Lord of every other month of the year. Allah is the Lord of Shawwal. He is the Lord of Dhul Hijjah and Dhul Qidah. He is the Lord of all of the months of the year, all 12. And so in Ramadan people get closer to their Lord because of the nature of Ramadan. They don't backbite.

The Prohibition of Backbiting

Normally people find it a little easier to talk about other people even though it's prohibited.

- Don't speak ill of one another behind their backs. Would one of you want to eat the dead flesh of your brother? That's what backbiting is. فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ - It's distasteful to you. It's loathsome to you. And so Allah is warning us and then in Ramadan we're supposed to be extra vigilant in order to train ourselves.

Controlling Primary Drives

Also if you can control, according to Imam Al-Ghazali, if you can control yourself with food and your sexuality, then you can control all of the other things much easier because these are the two primary drives in the human beings. The eros drive and the drive for satiation, for food, satiety. And so in learning to discipline the soul, we get closer to Allah.

Purification is Half of Faith

The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith that Imam Nawawi puts in his 40 hadith, which indicates its

primacy as one of the central hadiths of our tradition. He said

(Sahih Muslim hadith 223)

- Purification is half of faith. Imam Nawawi mentions in his commentary that Imam Al-Ghazali says, الطَّهُورُ here means purification of the heart. That purifying your heart is half of faith. The one half is to enter into faith.

That is one half, but the other half is - أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - He has succeeded who purifies his soul and he has faltered and stunted his growth and failed the one who stunts the growth of his soul.

The Purpose of Fasting

So تزكية is central to our tradition and Ramadan is about تزكية. It's about purification of the heart. It's about disciplining the soul.

- That we have prescribed for you fasting as a way of learning spiritual discipline, learning piety, getting closer to God, being mindful of Allah. So this is central.

The Weight of Remembrance

And then he said,

(Sahih Muslim hadith 223)

- Saying الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ will fill the scales. The scales according to our tradition are bigger than the heavens and the earth. The scales on يوم القيامة.

(Sahih Muslim hadith 223)

- Praising Allah. Saying this, it is filling what is between the heavens and the earth. That's how vast it is to praise Allah. And then the Prophet ﷺ said, وَالصَّلَاةُ نُورٌ - And prayer is light.

Prayer as Light on the Day of Judgment

The Prophet ﷺ in a hadith that's mutawatir. It's a factual hadith. The Prophet ﷺ said

(Sunan Abu Dawud hadith 561, Sunan Ibn Majah hadith 781)

- Give good tidings to those who walk in the darkness to the mosques of complete light on the day of judgment. When they go to the prayer before electricity, people didn't have, they went in dark. Give them glad tidings of complete light on the day of judgment. Because on يوم القيامة, there are periods as you move on the stages where it becomes completely dark. And those who did not have prayer in this world, they don't have any light. And so the prayer is light. It will guide you.

Prayer Prevents Evil Deeds

- Prayer will prevent you from doing foul and disobedient things. That increases your light. The more spiritual light you have, the more you can contribute to the elimination of darkness in the world. Darkness cannot succeed. Because darkness is a negative quality. It's not a positive quality.

The Nature of Light and Darkness

If you have a room filled with light, if darkness comes into the room, it can't dispel the light. It can't dispel the

Closing