Giving Ramadan a Drumroll in Brooklyn at 4 A.M. by Kirk Semple (NYT)

A few hours before dawn, when most New Yorkers are fast asleep, a middle-aged man rolls out of bed in Brooklyn, dons a billowy red outfit and matching turban, climbs into his Lincoln Town Car, drives 15 minutes, pulls out a big drum and — there on the sidewalk of a residential neighborhood — starts to play.

The man, Mohammad Boota, is a Ramadan drummer. Every morning during the holy month, which ends on Sept. 21, drummers stroll the streets of Muslim communities around the world, waking worshipers so they can eat a meal before the day’s fasting begins.

Cute, though I'm sure extremely annoying to, you know, the other 99% of the US that doesn't participate in Ramadan.

I still remember the drummers waking everyone up to eat/stop eating in Pakistan.

Uncle's got quite a few amusing quotes, though;

“Everywhere they complain,” he said. “People go, like, ‘What the hell? What you doing, man?’ They never know it’s Ramadan.”

Mr. Boota wants to be a good American, and a good Muslim. “I don’t want to bother other communities’ people,” he said. “Just the Pakistani people.”

read the whole thing here

Ramadan notes: Empathy, subtraction, and the ride By Ibrahim Abusharif

I know during this time of year, Muslims are often inundated with numerous articles that we "must read" regarding Ramadan, but I found this one particularly poignant.

Ramadan notes: Empathy, subtraction, and the ride
By Ibrahim Abusharif

In the days and weeks ahead, we will often be reminded of the graces truly associated with fasting the month of Ramadan, particularly its "thirds": mercy, forgiveness, and rescue from perdition. Verses of the Quran and traditions of the Prophet of Islam will be appropriately recited, in order to emphasize the great value of this prime real estate in time and the generosity, favor, and opportunity available to us. We will learn again that the most revered people in religious history, without fail, practiced fasting in some form—a tradition unbroken and now passed on to us. For them, voluntary deprivation and altered rules of consumption were more than parts of a spiritual regimen, but the expected thing to do if you took your life seriously and felt some responsibility for having a soul. The outpourings (prose and poetry) of saintly men and women have survived to our day and are frequently mentioned around this time of the lunar year. Rumi's urgent metaphors and Ibn Ata'illah's arresting aphorisms come to mind, as do the reflections of many others who speak of the various levels of the Fast and the necessities of each.

Without doubt, there is enormous benefit in hearing again these bezels of wisdom, although it's a struggle to draw from them. Our time—modern, postmodern, or whatever—is losing ground to aggressive mores that dampen human sensitivity to the sacred. Many have observed this, and it's hard to disagree. Some call it the "post-truth environment," an ethos that is unabashedly concerned with appearance, regardless of whether or not it connects with truth, just as long as it sounds right according to some market research. And yes, it's a world increasingly unwilling or unable to receive approvingly the insights of the great sages who were fortunate enough to have lived in a time when sacred tradition was a reality without a name, the natural flora of existence.

But in the end, there's a private and personal response to rituals that can mitigate the profanity all about us. By a sheer act of divine mercy and compassion, the essences of the rituals—these peculiar interruptions of behavior—have not really changed. They are able to do now, we hope, what they had done before, the same influence and benevolence originally prescribed for them.

A time-honored counsel that one often comes across deals precisely with wanting to imbibe more of the meanings of rituals. To paraphrase: If you want to truly understand what a ritual means, they say, then pay the tithe and participate more in what it calls you to do, beyond form. The larger culture of Ramadan lends itself to this advice in many ways, two of which pertain to what we can do and what we should feel.

Do something

It's often said that one of the benefits of fasting during the month of Ramadan is to experience something that poor people feel. There's probably some truth to that, but emphasizing it can have the unintended effect of viewing the indigent as an abstraction, people who live in desperation as if it were their station without parole. Fasting does have some didactic purposes that relate to the needy, but it pertains more toward empathy and duty rather than pity and abstractions. It's really impossible to simulate desperation, particularly when framed between dawn and dusk. The sheer anticipation of food and drink in a matter of hours completely dilutes the trauma and psychology of indigence. The realities of such places as the famine fields of Sudan—even when told in the descriptive narratives of the likes of Jacqui Banaszynski and others—are beyond dramatic demonstration.

It is part of the purpose and very culture of Ramadan to instill empathy that's actionable. Sympathy relates more to surface emotion that can be ransomed off with a check or, worse yet, forced distraction. Empathy, however, cannot be so easily assuaged or fooled. Empathy is connecting with others because of their humanity and their needs, no abstraction. It is about sincere giving, humility, gratitude, shared humanity, and realizing that our material condition and well being can change without notice, and each condition has an obliged reaction. The disparity of "realities" in our world are not forgiven when we show others our backs. We are a social species, which means more than tea and biscuits; we are responsible for those we know and, especially, those whom we may never meet. They are of us, and we are of them. When we fast with heart, we realize that we are in constant and utter need for things outside of ourselves, external to our so-called talents and skills. Dethroned, we realize that we are all needy, a permanent condition that's lost in our billboard world.

Sermon-talk aside, there are a thousand reasons why fasting and charity are linked together, according to scripture and prophetic tradition. They both are subtractions; one involves consumption and the other wealth. And we are promised by the highest authority that in subtraction like this, gain is guaranteed. We are charged to learn empathy and charged to do something with it.

Feel something

One thing that a thoughtful Ramadan experience is said to do is reverse 11 months of "professionalizing our existence," to borrow the phrase from Martin Amis. "Professionalizing" the religious experience means to become rote doers of rites (stiff and perfunctory); with Sunday-school heart; and exposed to pretension and self-righteousness, among the greatest risks of religiosity. If Ramadan were a proofreader's pen, it would stop at "Muslim" (the professional adherent) and strike it down to "muslim" (a person who believes and remembers why).

It's a marvel how a geologist can take a soil sample and come up with thunderous conclusions about the physical condition of the earth and the mad culture of consumption that's ravaging it. Seeing the big picture in something small and self-contained is the definition of sagacity. When Ramadan comes, things change. We all know it. It's an interruption in routine, a time that agitates a rote existence. This interruption has many purposes, but it comes down to this: It is said that if you want to see how your life is going, then look at your day, your sample, and realize (hopefully enchanted) that we are and always have been in this constant state of returning, a procession of hours and days that's taking us to nowhere but God, who made us and eventually wants us back.

To live with that consciousness and awareness of the grand ride is among the highest achievements of revealed religion. It affects everything. That awareness is also extraordinary and cannot be scaled with the ordinary. We are shown rituals—acts that are breaks from the norm—and we are taught something about them. How we engage them is really the challenge that by all appearance will not become easier. Trained to be jaded and consumers, Ramadan each year comes to us with an offer to be counter-cultural, to think differently, and hopefully remember the ride and the destination.

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Other Relevant Resources on Ramadan:

How to Prepare for Ramadan

Ramadan is Approaching - Imam Zaid Shakir

The Inner Dimensions of Fasting - Imam Ghazali

Daily Ramadan Podcasts - Sh. Faraz Rabbani


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Two quotes I enjoyed reading from Rumi:

"O moon-faced Beloved, the month of Ramadan has arrived. Cover the table and open the path of praise. O fickle busybody, it’s time to change your ways." -Rumi

"There is an unseen sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness. We are lutes. When the soundbox is filled, no music can come forth. When the brain and the belly burn from fasting, every moment a new song rises out of the fire. The mists clear, and a new vitality makes you spring up the steps before you. Be empty and cry as a reed instrument. Be empty and write secrets with a reed pen. When satiated by food and drink, an unsightly metal statue is seated where your spirit should be. When fasting, good habits gather like helpful friends. Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give in to illusion and lose your power. But even when will and control have been lost, they will return when you fast, like soldiers appearing out of the ground, or pennants flying in the breeze." ~Rumi

Ramadan 2009 @ The Big Picture

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/ramadan_2009.html


Phenomenal pictures, as always. You know, I've really never understood the desire to travel the world (no, seriously), but it's really starting to hit me lately. One day, inshaAllah?

Hadith of the Week 21

Ramadan Mubarak, everyone.

Talha ibn ‘Ubaydallah (radhiallahu `anhu) reported that two men came to the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) who had accepted Islam at the same time. One of them used to partake in Jihad more-so than the other, and so (one day) he fought in a battle and was martyred therein. The other remained behind him for another year, and then he passed away.

Talha said, ‘I saw in my dream that I was at the door of Paradise when behold, I was with both of them (the two men). Someone came out of Paradise and allowed the man who passed away later to enter first. Then he came out again and allowed the martyred one to enter. Then he returned and said to me, ‘Go back, for your time has not come yet.’
Talha woke up and began to inform others about this and they were all surprised. This reached the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) and when they informed him of it, he said:

من أي ذلك تعجبون؟ قالوا: يا رسول اللهّ هذا كان أشد الرجلين اجتهاداً ثم استشهد ودخل هذا الآخر الجنة قبله فقال رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وسلم) : أليس قد مكث هذا بعده سنة؟ قالوا: بلى. قال: أدرك رمضان فصام وصلى كذا وكذا من سجدة في السنة؟ قالوا: بلى. قال رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وسلم): فما بينهما أبعد مما بين السماء والأرض

He (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, ‘What are you surprised about?’ They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Out of them both, this one strove harder (in Jihad) then he was martyred but this other one was entered into Paradise before him.’ The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, ‘Did he not remain behind him for one year?’ They said, ‘Yes (he did).’ He said, ‘Did he not reach Ramadan, fast and pray with such and such number of prostrations in the year?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, ‘So the difference between them is greater than what is between the heavens and the earth.’

- Sahih narration from Ibn Majah (2/345, 346) and al-Albani’s ‘al-Silsilah al-Sahihah’

Make the most of Ramadan, we seriously don’t realize its greatness, worth and reward.

Source

Observing Ramadan (The Big Picture)

I've been pushing this blog to anyone who enjoys photography -- they've got amazing photos, updated 3x a week. Definitely check them out if you get the chance.

In the meantime, enjoy their pictures of Ramadan from around the world :)
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The Prophet (saw)'s Ramadan Sermon

Prophet's Ramadan Sermon


O people! Ramadan is laden with blessings, mercy and forgiveness; Ramadan is a month which Allah (God) considers BEST of all months. Ramadan days, in the sight of Allah, are the best of days; its nights are the best of nights; its hours are the best of hours. Ramadan is a month in which you are invited to be the guests of Allah, and you are regarded during it as worthy of enjoying Allah's Grace.

During Ramadan your breathing praises the Almighty, and your sleeping adores Him. Your voluntary acts of worship are accepted, and your pleas are answered. Ask Allah your Lord, therefore, in sincere intentions and pure hearts to enable you to fast during it and to recite His Book [the Holy Quran], for only a wretched person the one who is deprived of Allah's forgiveness during this holy month. And during Ramadan let your hunger and thirst remind you of the hunger and thirst of the Day of Resurrection.

During Ramadan grant more alms to the poor and indigent among you; surround your elderly with respect, and be kind to your youngsters. Visit your kin and safeguard your tongues, and do not look at what Allah has prohibited you from seeing (the base), nor listen to anything your ears are forbidden to hear (the evil). Be kind to the orphans of others so that your own orphans will equally receive kindness.

Repent your sins to Allah and raise your hands to Him in supplication during the times of your prayers, for these are the best times during which the Almighty looks with mercy to His servants and answers their pleas when they plead to Him.

O people! Your souls are a pawn of your deeds; therefore, release them by seeking Allah's forgiveness.

Your backs are over-burdened by the weight of your sins; therefore, lighten their burden by prolonging your prostration. Be informed that Allah, the Exalted and Mighty, has sworn by His Loftiness to relieve the torment of those who perform their prayers and prostrate to Him, and not to terrify them by the sight of Hellfire when people are resurrected for judgment.

O people! Whoever among you provides iftaar (breaking fast) to a believer during Ramadan will receive a reward equal to one who sets a slave free, and his past sins will be forgiven. Shun Hellfire even by [offering] half a date! Shun Hellfire even by [offering] a drink of water [to others fasting]!

O People! The one who improves his conduct during this month will have a safe
passage on al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem [the straight path during the Day of Judgment], when many feet will slip away, and whoever among you decreases the burdens of his workman will be rewarded by Allah in decreasing his reckoning [on the Day of Judgment].

The one among you who abstains from harming others during this month will be spared the ire of the Almighty when he meets Him.

The one among you who affords generosity to an orphan during this month will be amply rewarded by Allah on the Day of Judgment.

The one among you who improves the ties with his kin during this month will be rewarded by Allah in His mercy, and the one who severs his ties with his kin during this month, Allah will withhold His mercy from him upon meeting Him [in the Day of Judgment].

The one among you who offers voluntary prayers during this month, Allah will decree a clearance for him from the agony of the Fire.

The one among you who performs an obligatory prayer during this month will receive the reward of one who has performed seventy obligatory prayers in other months.

The one among you who increases the sending of blessings unto me during this month, Allah will make the balance of his good deeds weigh heavily when the scales will be light [in the Day of Judgment].

The one among you who recites one verse of the Holy Quran during this month, will receive the blessing of one who recites the entire Holy Quran in another month.


O people! The portals of Heaven in this month are kept open; so, pray Allah (God) your Lord not to close them against you, and the portals of the Hellfire are kept closed; so, pray Allah your Lord not to open them for you; and the devils are kept leashed; therefore, pray Allah your Lord not to unleash them against you.

Muslim Player Thrives With Nourished Spirit by Neil MacFarquhar (NYT)

Old, but whatever.

Link.

Highlights:

“I have had some of my best games during Ramadan,” [Hamza]Abdullah [of the Denver Broncos], a 24-year-old safety, said in an interview. “I got my first and only interception while I was fasting.”

It does not work for everyone. His teammate Ryan Harris, 22, a rookie offensive tackle from Notre Dame, lasted only six days, saying he decided to break the fast between a heavy workout in the morning, when he repeatedly bench-pressed about 275 pounds, and an afternoon practice.

“When your stomach is full, you get tired and lazy and too relaxed,” said [Hakeem] Olajuwon, who retired from the Houston Rockets in 2002. “You get tremendous energy from fasting. Everything is crisp. When your stomach is empty, you get a lot of oxygen and you can breathe.”

Abdullah credits the whole idea of Ramadan with helping push into the background all the distractions from daily life that might interfere with his concentration while playing. “You are focused on the things that matter in your life,” he said. “You are not worried about extracurricular activities with the guys that you usually get caught up in. I don’t hang out at all hours of the night, I don’t listen to music and play video games.”

The hardest parts of the day come during lunch time, he said, when he heads to the locker room to hang out while everyone else is in the cafeteria eating, and between afternoon practice or a game and sunset. To help make the time pass, Abdullah sits in a cool tub in one of the therapy rooms or goes home early to play with his young daughter.

Abdullah was born into a Muslim family, as was Olajuwon, but Harris converted in the eighth grade, drawn to the humility that is a key tenet of the faith, he said.

Islam teaches that if you cannot fast for some reason, you can either try to make it up some other time or pay for food for the hungry. Abdullah pointed out that Harris has been helping to support meals at a Denver homeless shelter.

“When you fast, you feel a sense of being part of a community, you are part of something bigger than yourself,” Harris said. “You learn how unbelievably lucky you are to be able to have a meal.”

House Resolution Celebrating Ramadan Passes (also, Tom Tancredo is still a douche)

Via ThinkProgress.org

(I recommend reading the whole, short article). I know I should be upset about the Tom Tancredo thing, but this just got to me instead:

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution “recognizing the commencement of Ramadan” with 376 votes. The resolution sought to “demonstrate solidarity with and support for members of the community of Islam in the United States” during this Muslim month of fasting.

:) Thanks America! For recognizing that I'm American, too.

After the vote, Tancredo issued a press release decrying the Ramadan resolution:

“This resolution is an example of the degree to which political correctness has captured the political and media elite in this country. I am not opposed to commending any religion for their faith. The problem is that any attempt to do so for Jews or Christians is immediately condemned as ‘breaching’ the non-existent line between Church and State by the same elite,” Tancredo says in his statement.

Tancredo voted “present” and not “no” because “a no vote could be construed as not commending religion in general, which Tom is for,” said Tancredo spokesman T.Q. Houlton. Instead, Tancredo seems to only selectively hate religion. He had no problem voting for a House resolution celebrating Christmas.

Ramadan Etcs.

Apparently I wrote this up, but complete forgot to post it a couple weeks ago.

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I knew I had blogged about this awesome article on the meaning of Ramadan before and in fact, I had. Though it makes me a bit sad to see all these missing Daily Show videos in blog posts past. sigh.

Then I guess I can use this post to talk about the Prophet (saw)'s Khutbah for Ramadan instead:

Ibn Khuzaima reported on the authority of Salman al-Farisi that the Prophet (saaw) delivered a Khutbah on the last day of Sh'aban saying: "O people: You are about to enter the shadow of a great blessed month. A night therein is better than a thousand months. Allah (swt) made fasting during this month an obligation and encouraged people to perform extra prayers. during its nights. Seeking nearness to Allah (swt) through a good deed would be considered like performing an obligatory act of worship. In turn, performance of an obligatory act of worship during this month would be rewarded seventy times more than during any other month. It is the month of patience, and the reward for patience is Jannah. It is the month of comforting others, and the month during which believers would enjoy plentifulness. The Prophet (saaw) went on to say:" Make sure you frequently do four things, two of which would please your Lord and the other two are indispensable for your salvation in the Hereafter. As for the two things that would please your Lord, they are: testifying to the oneness of Allah (swt) and seeking repentance. And the other two are: asking Allah the favour of entering Jannah and seeking refuge in Him from the Hell Fire."

And here is another hadith worth keeping in mind, inshaAllah. The Prophet said, "Whoever does not give up false statements (i.e. telling lies), and evil deeds, and speaking bad words to others, Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink (fasting)." Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.83, Narrated by Abu Huraira.

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I guess now you can use it as inspiration in the last 10 days :) salaams
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Ramadan, Day 6

A close family friend and the mother of a former BFF is back in the hospital, suffering from a relapse of cancer. Please keep her and her family in your Ramadan (and post-Ramadan) duas.

May Allah swt grant her shifa and ease her pain. May He reward her and her family for any suffering or hardship they endure, especially during this month, and expiate any sins they've committed (both knowingly and unknowingly) because of it. Ameen.