Day 12- Ramadan’ing With the Prophet

So its day twelve. I am doing pretty well but I admit the schedule is really jammed packed tight. I feel like every moment I get to rest, its time to get up and do something. Even when I go to sleep, I feel like my alarm is going off and its time to wake up. In this daze I started to wonder about the Prophet’s time and how Ramadan might have been then. I get really caught up in imagining this because thinking about it makes me feel like I am closer to this man that lived 1400 years ago. Its funny why we- Muslims- feel so close to a man that we don’t even know personally. For entire generations a thousand and four hundred years removed to love a man this much amounts to something.

I think that because God loved his messenger so much, we Muslims today are left with that feeling of love towards him. In the Quran, Allah says “The Prophet is preferable for the believers even to their own selves” (33:6). The Prophet SAW in a hadith is recorded as saying “None of you becomes a believer until I am dearer to him than his children, his parents and all mankind” as reported by Bukhari and Muslim. It sounds weird, I had a hard time understanding this. I feel I still do. But I think one thing I realized was that this is not something that isn’t reciprocated. Infact, we know from the Allah in the Quran that “The Prophet is greatly grieved at your loss and extremely anxious for your good. For believers he is full of kindess and rahmah (mercy, love)” (9:128).

A hadith that really chokes me up- literally- is the one of the Prophet SAW saying to his companions (those GRANTED Paradise mind you!)

Would that I can see my brothers coming toward me to the pool and welcome them with bowls filled with sweet juices. Before entering the paradise, I wish I can offer them from my Pool of Kawsar.

Upon these words, the companions said: Messenger of God! Are we not your brothers?

He replied: You are my companions. And my brothers are the believers who believe in me without seeing me. Surely, I ask of my Lord to illuminate my eyes with you and the believers who believe without seeing me.

God even promises in the Quran in Surah al-A’araf that “those who believe in him, honour him, help him and follow the light which is sent down with him – it is they who will prosper” (verse 57). That is where this love for the Prophet SAW stems from. I could go on, but I want to get back to my imagining Ramadaning with the Prophet SAW. In a hadith narrated by Anas RA, the Prophet SAW used to break his fast before offering Maghrib prayer by eating three fresh dates, if there were no fresh dates, he would eat three dry dates and if there were no dry dates, he would take three sips of water to break his fast.

I hate dates. I despise dates. I don’t like them at all. But the Prophet SAW was a big fan, and had I been around for breaking my fast with the Prophet, surely, he would offer a date to me to break my fast. How can I say no to a date offered by the Prophet SAW? So I eat dates, at first begrudgingly. Now I eat them knowing that if I were ever offered a date by the Prophet I would no make faces or feel guilty about eating something I don’t like.

Then I read about how the Prophet SAW said, as narrated by Anas RA “Eat Sahoor (predawn meal). Surely, ther is a blessing in Suhoor.” The hadith tells me that sleeping in for sahoor is a bad idea. The Sunnah of the Prophet is to eat something, even if its- get this- a DATE!

Responses to “Day 12- Ramadan’ing With the Prophet”

Day 11- Looking Like a Ramadan Zombie « affadshaikh

August 17, 2011

[…] day 11. Fasting might be getting to you. If you are doing those late night prayers and waking up at 430AM to eat your sahoor than you might just look like a Fleischer zombie. People around you must be wondering whats going […]

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hanamkhan

August 17, 2011

Came across your blog, I like your Ramadan reflections!

I feel the same way about dates, I don’t look forward to eating them and I sometimes hope my mother doesn’t offer me one. But I’ve begun feeling guilty for neglecting this sunnah, so I’m trying to eat dates at least once a day in Ramadan. (Btw, try medjool dates, best tasting dates from California I’ve had so far!)

On a more serious note, I noticed that the more we love someone, the more we try to be pleasing to that person. If we learn something is detestable to this person, we’ll try our best to avoid it or remove ourselves from it; if we learn something is loved by this person, we’ll try loving it too. We may even change trivial things, like our favorite color, all because we love this person!

It’s really beautiful when this happens with our beloved Prophet and Allah swt. It’s like a whole new spiritual experience as we begin changing our actions not only because something is obligatory or prohibited, but also because it is pleasing to the Prophet and God.

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Socal Moslem

August 18, 2011

thanks hanamkhan. I have to say you have a nifty blog to! only if i knew you were out there blogging i would have connected to your blog on a couple of things that i sort of touched on but you totally jumped into on your blog- like resource use and how to not get overly extravegent with the iftar.

Ever wonder though how the emotion of love can be abused? I fear that just as powerful love is, its also very much capable of being manipulated and contrued into something that is ugly. I dont know a random reflection i had. I guess to much of anything is bad, so it goes to the whole crux of my ramadan reflections- suffiency! Enjoy the rest of your ramadan and iA you get the reward for all you fasting, prayers and good deeds including blogging! (amin)

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Corner Office Shaikh