Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Sil Guladami and Eunice for joining us today. We at Maidan are incredibly grateful for your insights and expertise. Without further ado, let's begin with a few questions of clarification and then we'll go deeper.
What is the holy month of Ramadan? What is Muslim fasting?
[00:00:25] Speaker C: So fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars or duties of Islam, along with the Shahada, the testimony of faith, the Salah, the ritual prayer, the Zakat, which is charitable giving, and the Hajj, the making pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime if able. So Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. It's the ninth month of the lunar calendar. Muslims believe it was during this month that God revealed the first verses of the Quran, Islam's sacred text, to the Prophet Muhammad. Peace and blessings be upon him. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. On a night known as Laylatul Qadr, literally the night of power.
So during the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims are fasting every day from dawn, really pre dawn until sunset. So Ramadan is a time of spiritual discipline. It's a month of long, deep contemplation of one's relationship with the divine, performing extra prayers, increasing charity. And many Muslims intensely study the Quran in this period as well.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very common for Muslims to try to recite the entire Quran independently or often in Taraweeh during these extra nighttime prayers. But it's not like Muslims stop working and just kind of just stay at home and pray all day. People still go to work, people still go to school. They fulfill most of their normal duties during the day, even while they're fasting.
But in Muslim countries or Muslim majority countries, often they have adjusted hours. Maybe things will start later or adjusted school times. But for the most part, people go about their daily business despite not eating or drinking anything all day.
But it's not. I remember talking to one of my non Muslim friends about Ramadan. She was like. And I was saying how excited I was for it. She was like, why? That just sounds tough. You don't understand. It is so it's fun. Even as a kid. There are special treats, there are special shows on tv. But what really makes it special is it's like the quality of time changes. It's like a magical time. Families come together. There's a kind of joy and spiritual delight in the air. It's not just serious, dull fasting and iftars. Breaking the fast together is a big thing. You have Communal iftars, family iftars. And in a lot of countries there are traditions of going to visit your neighbor and giving them sugar or dates or other things like that. So it's really like a month long spiritual celebration. And it's tough to explain unless you've fasted. Ramadan in a Muslim country, it's like Christmas time, plus spiritual exercises. It's wonderful.
[00:03:22] Speaker D: At the end of Ramadan, there is a big three day celebration called Eid Al Fitr or the festival, the breaking of the fast. It's a religious holiday where everyone comes together for big meals with family and friends, dress to the nines, exchanges presents or gift money, and generally have a lovely time. Despite the hardship of fasting for a whole month, most Muslims, myself included, actually look forward to Ramadan and are sad when it's over. There's just something really special about knowing that tens of millions of your fellow Muslims around the world are experiencing the same hunger pangs, drying mouth and dizzy spells that you are and that we're all in it together.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Thank you so much, all three of you for that explanation. I guess I'll have another sort of short question that take us a little bit further. I believe that the audience would love to hear about what, what Muslim fasting looks like in Muslim practice. Yunus.
[00:04:16] Speaker D: So during Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating any food, drinking any liquids, smoking cigarettes, and engaging in any sexual activity from dawn to sunset. That includes taking medication. Even if you swallow a pill dry without drinking any water, doing any of those things invalidates your fast for the day and you just start over the next day to make up for your your days. You didn't fast. You can either fast later in the, in the year, either all at once or a day here and there, or provide a meal to a needy person for each day you missed.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah, but the fasting is not just about not eating food or drinking water. As a hadith that says fasting is a shield, don't damage it, don't crack it. And they ask, probably Prophet, what damage is it? And he said lying. Another relation, narration, backbiting, getting angry, fighting with people. So as you, you're not just trying to abstain from food, you're trying to abstain from really anything that would be displeasing to God. So people try extra hard during this month not to get in fights, not to lie, not to back bite, to kind of give up all of the bad habits that they do. And in Islamic spiritual traditions, various spiritual traditions, they talk about kind of different levels of the fast. There's a general level which is eating and drinking, abstaining from sex during daylight hours. Then there's another level which is where you try to guard your tongue and your eyes and things like. And then there's a higher level which even you can try to control your thoughts and keep yourself focused on God and good things. Some people also try to limit otherwise okay activities like watching TV or maybe listening to music or things like that instead to focus on the Quran. Because this is the month in which the Quran was revealed.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: I do that. I don't. I stop, listen like, I'm off media. All media.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Social media. Social media fast is something that I've heard some people do.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: The month often functions as a type of reset. And given that it comes annually, it oftentimes is the case that people, you know, anticipate Ramadan and so start to change their behavioral patterns as Ramadan approaches. And then there's usually kind of a post Ramadan period where there's still this type of glow, maybe a physical glow from having regulated one's diet a bit better, but also the glow of the social interactions that then carries us into the next month. And all Muslims are technically required to take part in the fast, but there are special dispensations for those who are ill or maybe pregnant or nursing. Menstruating women don't fast and will make up those days later. Women experiencing postnatal bleeding, people who are traveling for young children as well. That it depends based on a family sort of when a young child will start to fast. But sometimes kids even try to participate in part of the day, even if they can't make it for the whole day.
Also, the elderly might not be able to make a whole day worth of fasting. So if there's a health emergency, Muslims can certainly break their fast. Fasting, it's meant to be a spiritual challenge. There's a spiritual challenge in the physical challenge of fasting, but it's not intended in any way to be a threat to someone's health. And many Muslims will consult their doctor to understand if possibly medication they're taking would. Would not make fasting possible for them in a given year.
So people can be completely excused from the fasting due to a medical condition that where fasting would cause harm. And then people can make up the fast later if it's a temporary condition. Or there's also the ability to feed people as a way of doing a charitable expiation for having not fasted.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Thank you so much for that explanation. As I mentioned, in the introduction, there are four types of Muslim fast. So the first compulsory fast for the month of Ramadan, fasts for atonement of sins, supererogatory fasts, and silence fasts. If I could ask each of you to elaborate on one, I think the audience would really find that helpful.
[00:08:41] Speaker D: That's a great question. And there's two categories of fast which, which have been mentioned in the Quran. So the first one talks about fasting during the month of Ramadan, which is obligatory for all adult Muslims, except for those, as Salim mentioned, who are unable to fast. So there's a famous verse in Surah Baqarah which says, so, O you who believes are speaking to the community of believers, the kotiba, or has been decreed upon you as has been decreed upon those before you. So there is this connection between the Islamic or the Muslim fast and those of other religions, whether it's there's Christian fasts or Jewish fasts. And the purpose of this fast or this fasting in Ramadan, so for the purpose that you are conscious of God, that you're in awe of his presence and you're mindful of Him. So this is one famous verse that's mentioned in another verse. It talks about Ramadan and how that the entire month has been prescribed of individual fast for the entire month. And it says for the purpose that you are grateful and you recognize that the gratitudes and the bounties that God has given upon you.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Celine.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: So fasting can also be a way to expiate from sins that are committed from shortcomings, potentially a deed that someone does or cannot do that was otherwise required or prohibited. And there's a verse in the Quran in Surah Al Ma'idah, which is the fifth surah, the fifth section of the Quran, where Allah in the Quran talks about oaths and what people should do if they break their oaths. So fasting in that particular verse is given as one of the ways that people can expiate for having made an oath and then later having broken it. In that case, it's a fast of three days.
Sometimes this fasting goes alongside feeding needy people or manumitting an enslaved person. But being able to manumit an enslaved person or feeding needy people would presume that a person has excess wealth, which might not always be the case. But fasting is a deed that is possible maybe for anybody of any socioeconomic status. So again, the fast then functions as a type of reset, as a way for that person to restore, in this case, in the Verse in sort al Maida, which is verse 89 of sort al Maida. In this case, it's for an oath. But there's other actions, either performed or omitted, that would also make fasting a possible expiation.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah, and then there's these.
Yeah, the, the supererogatory fast, these extra fasts called nawafil, which is like above and beyond fasts. There's a famous hadith in which the Prophet says that God says all of the actions of the children of Adam are for him belong to him, except for fasting belongs to me, and I reward for it. So fasting is. There are a lot of different extra devotions that Muslims can do, but fasting is a very prominent one. Let's say if you can't make hajj because you're sick or you're ill or can't do some of the rights on hajj, you can fast in exchange for that described in Surah al Baqarah. You can also give charity. The Prophet used to fast a lot.
A lot. And so Muslims tried to emulate his example by fasting. Commonly he fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. He also fasted on what are called the white days of the month, which are the middle three days of the month called the white days because that's when the moon is full and the nights are white. There are so many other extra fasts that the Prophet. The Prophet would often fast this month in which we're in now the month of Sha'ban, the first few days of the month of Shawwal, after Ramadan, fast on the day of Ashura and Muharram, several other days that were very common for the Prophet to fast on and that his companions and then people tried to follow his example would, would often fast on, on these days as well, too. So fasting, you know, these extra fasts are very, very common part of, of, of, of Muslim devotion. In fact, there's a, in, in the same hadith that I mentioned earlier, the Prophet says that God says that the breath of a fasting person is sweeter to me or it's more fragrant to me than musk. If any of you ever fasted, your breath's a little. Most of us, it's a little stale, but it's still to us. But God really appreciates and loves this particular form of devotion, which is why it's such a big part of one of the reasons why it's such a big part of Islamic spirituality.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Thank you, Yunus. I'd like to circle back to you connected to these various types of fasts. I'm interested in your scholarship on silent fast. Could you speak to the audience about this lesser known fast in the Quran, the fast of silence associated with Maryam or Mary and Zakaria or Zachariah. How does the concept of fasting as silence translate here? Or what is the fast of silence in the Quran? Moreover, I'm curious if you have read or have any thoughts on how Maryam or Mary was asked to be silent after the miraculous birth of a son Isa or Jesus and Zachariah or Zachariah was asked to be silent before the miraculous birth of his son Yahya or John. Finally, what are your thoughts on the moral potential and possible mystical insights of silent fasting?
[00:14:40] Speaker D: So that's a wonderful question. And part of my interest is on biblical and Quranic figures. One of the most important is Mary or Maryam. And I'm currently writing a book on the Islamic Mary. And one thing that is so interesting about her is how she's described in Surah Maryam and the word som is actually used within Surah Tamarim to talk and describe her. However, in this circumstance, you see that it's used to talk about silence. And I think this is fascinating because a lot of time when we think about fasting in English or even in Arabic somnolent, we think about abstaining from food and drink. But here there is a fascinating example of where it's used to talk about not speaking at all. And this is when Maryam has actually given birth to her child Isa or Jesus, and she's told that she shouldn't speak with anyone, that if anyone sees you or you see anyone from then.
So here she's commanded to make a vow to the most merciful or God to engage in fasting. And then right afterwards it explains what that fasting is going to look like, that you will not speak to anyone at all. And this is a challenging moment for Maryam because Maryam had just given birth to a child. She's going to return back to her people and they're going to question her. How did you have this child? When you are a virgin and this exactly happens, she goes back, they look at her and say, how is this possible? You come from a good family.
Your mother and father were righteous and not unchaste. And then she points to her child.
So she, instead of responding directly to their accusations and slander, she points to Jesus. Isa and the chronic Jesus at this point begins to speak after they share their disbelief and they say to her, you know, how is it possible that we're going to speak to this child who's in their cradle? And then this actually leads the way for Isa Jesus to say, inn ya Abdullah, that verily, I am the servant of God. So there is this fascinating play you see in the, in the story between Soman Nisan, the fast of the tongue and the speech, you know, the speech of Jesus. And as you alluded to, this is found throughout Surah Maryam. So you see earlier in the chapter, Zechariah or Zachariah also asked for a child. And he's given a child. But part of his sign, his ayah, is that he's not supposed to speak for three days and night. So there is this test that you can. You're not allowed to, to speak to others. You're allowed to maybe communicate. But there is this important spiritual element of silence. And you see this throughout the Islamic tradition. Ulu Damani mentioned this, I think very nicely. We see also prophetic traditions, chronic verses. So one famous verse in Surah Furqan or the Criterion, say it talks about the people or the servants of the most gracious. So.
So the servants of the most merciful, they walk on the earth in humility.
So if someone who is ignorant speaks to them and maybe criticize or slanders them, then they say peace. So there's this idea that you should, that you should push yourself, strive to speak in a better way, and at times even respond in silence. And silence is a form of speech. It's a way to communicate your feelings, your sentiments, and it actually allows others to speak up on your behalf.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Thank you so much for that. I should mention that at some point I was considering going to one monastery where they did the silent fast. And honestly, I wasn't able to go because they said for me, if I could read the Quran, for example, if I could read something, I would be okay.
Giving up my phone or whatever is not an issue. But they would not even let you take a book like you just had to just be with yourself. And they also said, you know, one of the things was you're not allowed to look in anybody's eyes.
So, I mean, I guess I'm not ready yet. But one day I think I'd like to do the silent fast to Celine. If I may ask you a question that I think the audience would be interested in is that some may know and others may not know that Muslims follow the lunar calendar for religious matters. That is one based on the faces phases of the Moon whose 12 months add up to approximately 354 days, which are 11 days shorter than the 365 days of the standard calendar. And so the Islamic lunar calendar moves backward approximately 11 days each year in relation to the regular calendar each year. The question of when Ramadan begins is a question that is answered in two different ways by the Muslim community. Some follow calculations and other follow sightings of the moon physically by the naked eye. Could you, Celine, shed some light on this discussion? Would you also, if possible, speak to the moral potential and mystical insight of one or both of these approaches to the Islamic calendar?
[00:20:57] Speaker C: This issue of calculating the Islamic calendar really can tell us something about the conceptual heart of Islam as a, as a system. And so the fact that, for instance, Muslims are watching the positioning of the sun for their daily prayers and then understanding the position of the moon for other aspects of their worship, it really does mean that as a believer, as a practitioner, you're connected to the worlds of nature, of the cosmos in this very particular way. And so when, when we think about the role of science in Islam and we could think about calculating the moon through scientific methods, the Islamic tradition is supportive in general of scientific methods because it's considered a way to reach knowledge. And another way to reach knowledge in the Islamic trad is through experiential insights. And so even in this question of seeing the moon with the eye and having that experience of it, and the question of calculations, kind of the two can supplement each other. But it's fascinating that experience is really highlighted here. So there's a Hadith that is talking about how to calculate the days in the month of Sha'aban, which comes right before the month of Ramadan. And Sha'ban can either be a 29 day month or a 30 day month. We might think of the comparison to February and the leap year for those more familiar with the Gregorian calendar. And so in a Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, says that if it is obscured, it meaning the crescent moon, then calculate it, meaning that if on the 29th day, and Muslims are looking for this crescent moon, which is the sign that the month of Ramadan begins. So we have this concept in Islamic temporal systems that the day begins sort of at the night. And so the Friday would kind of technically begin on a Thursday evening in the darkness. And there's a parallel there to the human life itself, where we begin in the womb and then come out into the world, go back into the grave. And so that arc of the night coming into the day mirrors something of the experiential arc of a human life. But in any case, the hallel, this crescent moon that signifies the new lunar month, it is technically the reason that then makes the fasting obligatory. So we know Ramadan has begun. We know that the command to fast is operative because we have seen this crescent moon in the sky. Well, what about weather? And the moon is not visible on this 29th night. And we don't know if Shaban is 30 days in this particular year or if the next day is the first of Ramadan. And so starting in about the third generation after the Prophet, these questions began to be asked.
To what extent? When the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him in the Hadith, gave this conditional approval for calculation. To what extent is the sighting of the Moon still operative? And so for most, many, many Muslims, and I would venture to say that it is a majority, that this is still a very important part of the ethos of welcoming in Ramadan. And not only is it this technical question, but it also becomes a social event where families might go out and look for the moon. And so there's a certain excitement about it. There's another question that is pertinent to address here now, when we have the question of when does Ramadan start and have we seen the moon?
We know that based on how the time zones move around the Earth, that people in the east experience a night before people in the Western Hemisphere? And so a question then arises as well. Well, what if the weather patterns in the east mean that people have seen a crescent moon in that particular night? So say Muslims in China have seen a crescent moon. Well, what about Muslims in Iran? If the weather is cloudy over Iran, but they've seen it in China, to what degree? This is a question that comes in the early Islamic period. To what degree does people, do people citing it in one portion of the night, in one location, does that then mean that the fasting would be obligatory even to people who haven't physically seen it with their own eyes, but have heard word that other people have seen it? And so because of these questions, it's really, this latter question is really what is better, the individual experience or this idea of unity among Muslim peoples? And so unity ends up becoming a very big principle here, that where the moon is sighted in one place, that if it's in that night and say we're in the 29th night of sha Ben and the moon is spotted in a particular locale, the hallel, the crescent moon, well, then those people can inform everyone else that the moon in fact was sighted so it's partly an individual practice of maybe going out with one's family and having that experiential moment of seeing the crescent moon and knowing for oneself for certain. But we can also rely on our communal knowledge in order to welcome in the month of Ramadan. And it does. These different methods of calculation or relying on personal citation of the moon versus the knowledge that someone else did, it really does show that there is at the heart of the Islamic conceptual system, an embrace of difference. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, has said that the difference in the community is in fact a mercy. And I think this is just one of the many instances that we could point to where it's only ever a day difference between these methods. So even though there is a difference, it actually isn't a very large and substantial one in the grand scheme of things.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Thank you, Celine. That was really helpful. And I think it clarifies for the audience all the different ways in which the sun and the moon are part of our ritual practice. One thing that does come to my mind when I think about, like looking at the moon versus the mosque that I go to, we do moon sighting versus maybe scientific calculation, is that I think we are also asked to embrace uncertainty because, you know, as much as we want everything to be certain, things are not certain. And I think this is kind of a training in accepting uncertainty. I'd also like to sort of talk about something you mentioned in the end, which is about difference. And at this point, maybe I'd like to speak about differences between Shia and Sunni practice. For the most part, I would say that there are no major differences between the practice of Ramazan, between Shias and Sunnis. Both Shias and Sunnis fast during Ramadan, but there are some minor differences. So for instance, Sunnis break their daily fast at sunset, when the sun is no longer visible on the horizon, but there's still light in the sky. Whereas Shias wait until the redness of the setting sun has completely vanished and the sky is totally dark. So which means in practice that Shias would break their fast a couple of minutes later, maybe five, six minutes later. The difference in practice comes from two different but completely valid interpretations of Surabakara verse 187.
The portion of it that matters here is it reads, you may eat and drink until you can see the light of dawn, breaking the darkness of night, and then complete the fast until nightfall. Another practice that is more predominant between the Shias is the commemoration of the martyrdom of Ali IBN Abi Talib, who is the cousin and son in law of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who was both the revered fourth Caliph for Sunnis and Shias and the first legitimate Imam for Shia Islam. And on the 19th day of the month of Ramadan, while Ali was worshiping at a mosque in Kufa, Iraq, an assassin from a group of rebels who opposed his leadership fatally struck him with a poisoned sword. And Ali died two days later. So Shias commemorate his death by organizing Madlis's which are just religious gatherings for three days, which is the 19th, 20th and 21st of Ramadan.
Uladami, I have a question for you and I think that the audience with your scholarship on Sufism would be very, very interested in hearing about your insight. I was thinking about this prophetic hadith which goes something like how many of those who fast don't get anything out of the fast, expect hunger and thirst. The interpretation of the symbolism behind fasting has been a subject of reflection for theologians, mystics and historians of religions alike. Fasting in Islam is believed to be conducive to spiritual transformation of individual through closeness to God. Muslim fasting has a Zahiri outer and Batani inner dimension. Could you speak to the audience about the moral potential and mystical insights of fasting? Uladhaani?
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a big question.
Some people just get hungry and thirsty.
Another hadith in Amal Biniyat, actions are according to their intention. So the most famous hadith about Ramadan, the Prophet says whoever fasts the month of Ramadan out of sincere iman a belief and hoping for reward from God, then his past sins will be forgiven. So it's you have to have the right intention fasting around, you're not doing it to show off to people, you're not doing this to go around with the crowd. You have to have the proper intention. There's also another hadith that says something along the lines is whoever or I think it's a saying of the companions, saying the companions that whoever abstains from a bad sin, like I don't know, let's say I'm a drug dealer or a robber and like during fasting hours, I'm not going to hold anybody up. As soon as the sun goes down, black air force ones are on. We're going, we're going for it, right? This is that that person's fast is not accepted, right? If you have the intention to do something really bad as soon as the sun goes down, you're abstaining from it. During the day is a kind of form of hypocrisy now, when it comes to the symbolism of fasting, that's a whole big thing. But anybody who's ever fasted, you kind of feel a certain kind of detachment from everything that's going on. You almost feel like you're kind of floating above. You're there, but you're not there. A kind of sense of being in the world, but not of it. And it's a kind of detaching from the zahir, the outward, the apparent aspect, and a kind of retreat into the bottom, into the inward, the hidden aspect of things. And in kind of Islamic cosmological symbolism, the zahra is represented by the day, the botan by the night. You know, night, it's dark, and you actually see this. A lot of people, particularly towards the end of the month of Ramadan, become kind of nocturnal. They stay up all night praying. So you kind of live in the bottom. There's a kind of withdrawal from the outward world of preoccupations and. And eating and drinking and all of this stuff. And you move into the botan, into the unseen world. In fact, during the last 10 nights of Ramadan, the Prophet used to spend them in seclusion in the mosque. And people who can do that often do that. They'll spend, like, take off work, take a vacation week, and spend the whole time in the mosque kind of in spiritual retreat, communing with their Lord. So it's a kind of retreat into the botan. There's also this kind of sense. Some of the Sufis, famous Sufis like Ibn Arabi and drawing on earlier Sufis, they describe four kinds of death that people who are undertaking the Sufi path have to undergo. There's the green death, which is kind of giving up fancy clothes or wearing patched robes, which is something a lot of traditional Sufis used to do. The black death is enduring insults and evil from people without any retaliation. The red death is combating your own passions. That's kind of the jihad al Akbar, the greater jihad, against your own nafs, against your own. Your inner jerk. You know, you try to curb your. Your negative appetites. Then there's the. Then there's the white death, which is fasting itself. And it's. It's a kind of death. It's a. It's a kind of death. You're. You're kind of walking dead during the fasting hour. Not in a bad way, but in the sense of, as the Hadith says, die before you die. You kind of die to your passions. You give up all of these things for God which is why Sufi commentators on this hadith, which is what God says, everything that the children of Adam do is for them, except for fasting, because fasting is a non action. It's a non doing.
Everything else that you do your prayers, hajj stuff, it's stuff that you do, fasting, you're kind of taking yourself out of the equation. And that's why it's Gods and it's. It's for God. So it's a kind of negation of yourself, a kind of death, even a kind of ego death, you could say in modern parlance of a sort. But that ego death is a life. There's always this complementarity thing. So we talked about the soma kalam, the fasting from speaking, which is also a common Sufi practice in some places. Some famous Sufi, like Allama Tabatabai, who was a famous Shiite scholar, Sufi, he did some fast of speaking for over a year, I think he didn't speak to anybody for over a year. So this is still a current practice that people do. But so in, in the, in the Quranic story, the refraining from speech is accompanied with these people who come, one of whom is called Kalimatullah, right? Or say that Maryam is a virgin and so she gives birth. The Prophet is unlettered and so he gets a book. So there's this complementarity. The emptying of fasting brings the fullness. The death of fasting brings spiritual life. So the outer death of fasting brings the inner spiritual life. The emptying of fasting brings a fullness of spiritual insights, life and things like. So there's this complementary aspect to it as well. The. Some of the Sufi commentators also remark, like Ibn Arabi, that in fasting, we, to the extent that's possible, kind of virtually participate in God's quality of Samadhaniya. So God, like in Surah, alas, literally means filling up all the space, having no holes, being completely self sufficient.
Right. So in fasting we close all our holes, basically. Close your mouth, close. You know, nothing goes in, very little goes out, at least during the day.
And you're also somewhat self sufficient. We can't actually ever be self sufficient where human beings, we're creatures, but we participate a little bit in that, in that self sufficiency. We get a taste of, of this, this kind of state.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: State of being, yeah, like approximating the self sufficient.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Approximating it. Approximating it. And then the. One of the most important things, not just in Sufi practice, but in kind of all regular Muslim devotional practice is looking for, seeking this night of Laylatulkad, the night of power. This is the night in which the Quran was first revealed. The Quran says it's. It's better than a thousand months, right? Which is, which is wild. It's. And there's lots of things like this in the Islamic tradition. The whole Quran is contained in the fatiha. A third of the Quran is contained in surah ekhlas, things like that. So it's a. It's a different way of thinking about time. Time is not just a series of seconds, minutes, things that numerically run on forever. Time has quality. Different days, different months, different moments. They're qualitatively different. And you can taste this, you can feel it, you experience it. So Laylatul Qadr is supposed to be somewhere in the last 10 nights. Going back to your point about uncertainty, we don't know. There's a hadith that says the Prophet knew when it was and was going to tell people, but then he saw all these Muslims arguing and so he left it.
They said the knowledge of it was lifted so that people would seek it in those last 10 nights and exert their devotions more. So people try to stay up all night and pray that night.
The Quran says the angels descend with God's command. All kinds of folk beliefs about your. That's when your destiny is decided.
That's when if you pray on that night, all of your sins will be forgiven and these, these kinds of things. But the Layla tul qada really represents the space in which the revelation descends. So it's the space in which the presence of God comes down. So in a certain sense, it's like the soul of the Muslim is Laylatul Qadr in which the Quran comes down, the presence of God, the word of God comes down. And so Muslims of all stripes and backgrounds really exert themselves in those last 10 nights to try to find, to try to be awake, to try to be praying, to try to catch Laylatul Qadr, to try to receive the blessings that are coming down during that special night. Among those special nights in this special month.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: I really like how you spoke about how there is a different quality of time. And I think that modernity makes us think that all time and all spaces are the same. But religious traditions have always known that there is sacred time that has a different quality and there are sacred spaces. I also really liked how you put that fasting is a non. And, you know, when you were speaking, it came to my mind when we Think of the shahada, the kalma, it starts with a negation, la ilaha illallah. And so that's kind of really important to think about both the non and the present and the unpresent. So just as a last question, we have spoken quite a bit about religious, the religious and spiritual meaning and benefits of fasting. If you could all speak about and share some thoughts on the social benefits of fasting, I'll jump in here.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: Olusemini. As I was hearing you speak, I'm reminded of this supplication that many Muslims will say in the days right before Ramadan, this Allahma balaghna Ramadan, like let us reach Ramadan. And it's that there's a particular type of yearning that you know, yearning for the month and yearning for all of these jewels and gems. And part of that is all these mystical kind of botany and interior transformations that happen in this month. And then as we started off at the beginning, the other part of that is all of these social joys that come with the month. And there's really a power in a society kind of setting aside this time where everybody is supposed to be striving to be the best version of themselves possible. It's this moment to say, what can we really do together? And the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was known for his generosity. And then we have these sayings that he was the most generous in Ramadan. So it's just this moment where everyone can try to elevate their game. And it's not just a day, but it's this entire month. We have in the US we have this trend of the 30 days, 30 day fasting or the like that comes out of health movements. And this is the idea that, wow, if you can do something for 30 days, you can really inculcate a new type of awareness.
But what does that, what does that mean? Practically? It means people are taking more time to take care of the silat al arham, these relations of the womb, meaning the family relations or the neighborly relations. Practically, it means that the smell of cooking from different homes is wafting out and people are ensuring that they're sharing their meals. We're encouraged to do that anyway. But in particular, people are focused on sharing food. Or even if we think about charities that are making appeals, Ramadan is a month where so many Muslim charities have their budget for the entire year fulfilled because people are extra generous in seeking the extra rewards that are embedded in the month.
So, yeah, there's just, there's so much to Say, I'll turn it over, Eunice, to you.
[00:43:08] Speaker D: No, that's beautiful. And I would just to build upon what you're saying, there's so many social benefits to fasting.
Maybe I could focus a little bit on campus life. I think a lot of us operate on campuses or educational environments. So what I've seen is that it's an opportunity for solidarity among people on campus, and whether that's the Muslim community or whether that's the Muslim community with the larger campus community. So this is actually opportunity for university or educational administrations to demonstrate their commitment to their Muslim minority community. It's an opportunity for them to emphasize diversity, equity, inclusion on their campuses as an opportunity for them to feel the fasting. So I know that on my campus, sometimes the upper administration, the president, may actually fast with the community and they feel that solidarity. When I've gone to other campuses and spoken, they introduce the vice presidents and the provosts who are there. They often make remarks about how important the community is a part of. Of the larger university. So I think this. This idea of the social impact is really important in our educational institutions.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: Yeah, in the early traditions about this, you find things saying that rich people during the month of fasting experience what it's like to be poor, not to have enough to like. It's one. You can read Oliver Twist or something, but it's another thing to be really, really hungry.
Now, you know, it might only be for 12, hungry and thirsty. It might only be for 12 hours or, you know, a day. But 30 days of being kind of hungry and thirsty will give you actually an appreciation for what a lot of people go through involuntarily. And so there's a kind of sense of solidarity, and this was recognized very early on in the Islamic tradition, a sense of solidarity with those who don't have enough to eat and drink. Also, generally in Ramadan, in Muslim societies, nobody goes hungry. There's so much food that's cooked, prepared, bought, shared. In some places they consume. The society will consume more food in Ramadan than in, like three other months. Now, some of that's from people gorging themselves when they, you know, at night when they break fast. But a lot of that is from people who normally wouldn't be eating well, being fed and being fed, really delicious, lovely, celebratory holiday meals kind of every night that are provided for, for people. So, as you know, Celine said, it's a time when charity increases, when people give not just food, money, and other things to people. If you can't fast as we mentioned before, one of the things you, you, you do is you can feed hungry people.
And so it's, it's, it's a month in which there's a, there's a lot of feeding and there's a lot of, as both of you mentioned, social solidarity. Everybody's kind of going through this similar difficult but wonderful thing. And it, it gives people, by breaking your normal habits, it gives you a chance to reflect on them and reflect on the society, societal habits at large. So yes, you and your own family, but also like, how is, how is this all set up? Ramadan is really a time of contemplation. And one of the things that people often contemplate are how, you know, how are we living this collective we. How are we living? What can we do better? And it's a time, as Celine said, in which care for the poor and care for the needy is highly emphasized. So the Prophet was always very generous, generous to the needy. He said he would even borrow money from people too, if he didn't have money to give to people. And he was even more generous in Ramadan. So in fact, interestingly, there are a couple of revolts of Muslim enslaved people in the Americas, especially in Brazil, that were launched in Ramadan. So if you want to talk about social impact in Ramadan, you have all of these people fasting and preparing for radical social revolutions as well too, because it changes our habits. It's an opportunity, invitation for us to change things, not just on an individual level, but on a collective social level as well.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: Thank you, Celine, Uladami and Yunus for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us. We at Maidaan are honored to have had the opportunity to hear from you. Your perspective has added depth and richness to our conversation. Thank you for being here.
