Sayed Jawwad Naqvi - Philosophy of Ramadhan

7/30/2019 Sayed Jawwad Naqvi - Philosophy of Ramadhan

1/5

THE PHILOSOPHY OF

The Holy Month

of RamadhanA Discourse by Hujjatul Islam Sayed Jawwad Naqvi


2/5

In this holy month, we have been ortunate to be given a very good opportunity, one

that has been given to us without asking or begging Allah (s.w.t). Many a times, one

does not avail a bounty simply because he cannot recognize its signicance, cannot

appreciate the bounty and thereore is unable to benet rom these momentary, lim-

ited windows o opportunity. On the other hand the law o opportunities is also veryunique. As mentioned in narrations, opportunities come like clouds and pass away the

same way. They do not wait. They do not knock repeatedly on someones door. They

do not come back again. When one is ortunate to get such an opportunity he should

be thankul or the bounties given to him in the orm o the opportunity. One should

welcome it, one should hug it, one should embrace it. In act on its own, the meanings

o Fursat (occasions/time) and Taueeq (opportunity) also need to be explored.

The Holy Month o Ramadhan is one amongst those great occasions which Allah

(s.w.t) has gited us with.

It is not a minor thing that we have just lived though another year and we have again

entered the Holy Month o Ramadhan. Whatever the Holy Quran says about this

Holy month o Ramadhan is amiliar to you; the picture that Quran paints o this

month is present in your minds:

The Quran has declared the Holy Month o Ramdhan as the month in which the Holy

Quran descended. It is ound in the narrations o the amily o the Prophet (peace be

upon them all) that the Holy Month o Ramdhan is known as Rabi-ul-Quloob . Rabi-

ul-Quloob means the month o spring or the hearts. Just as the earth experiences the

season o spring, so does the heart. The season o spring isnt simply the passing o

days and night. In act you would have elt that during the season o spring the earth

is in a very dierent state. Hard land, dry land, barren land, deserted land, sandy land,

rocky land, waterless land, all these all o a sudden become sot, just by the system o

the Creator. Though no one ploughs on this land dead seeds inside the earth come to

lie. You may have noticed how grass comes out o the earth, then it becomes dry and

its seeds get mixed with the earth in its soil. Throughout the year these seeds remain

inside the soil, summer comes and passes away, autumn comes and passes away, and

then the winter comes. In these three seasons those seeds remain preserved in their

dead state inside the soil. But as soon as the season o spring commences, the samedead seed inside this dead land turns green. By the command o the Creator the earth

becomes sot again. It develops the capability to accept the seed inside it. It develops

the ability to grow that seed. With the command o the Creator it turns green and

comes out o the earth, and then on it grows fowers and ruits. What a beautiul sight

it is to see! How delicious is the taste o these ruits. How aromatic is the smell o

these fowers. Due to the qualities o the season o spring the same dead seeds rom

the same dead earth now start to blossom and this miracles o creation become vis-

ible to the human being.

It is mentioned in the narrations that the Holy Month o Ramadhan is the spring o

hearts, the spring o the Holy Quran. This does not reer to that heart which is in our

chest, or the heart behind the ribs o our chest, but instead that heart which is o our

soul, that which is the true, the sensational heart o the human being. This heart, o

the soul, passes through dierent seasons as well spring, summer, autumn and win-

ter. You have seen the land during winter, when cold air blows, water reezes, and snow

alls. Sot things become rozen and hard. Similarly, the human heart also experiencessuch transitions, such changes. There is a particular human state in which the human

heart also becomes rozen. Just like ice, it reezes. In this state the remembrance o

Allah (s.w.t) becomes impossible. Sometimes the heart becomes dead like the vegeta-

tion in the autumn season it cannot accept any guidance. In order to reshen up

this heart, make it blossom, make it green and lively, this heart o the human being,

which is the land o Allah (s.w.t), Qalbul Momin Arshul Rahmaan (the heart o a

believer is the throne o the Lord) , Allah (s.w.t) has established a season called

the Holy Month o Ramadhan. The heart sotens in this month. In this month, the days

2 3

The month of Ramadhan is one in which the Quran was sentdown as guidance to mankind, with manifest proofs of guidance

and the Distinguisher. (between right and wrong). [2:185]


3/5

that pass have a proound eect. In this month, the state o a person in one day is

dierent to the next. The same sun rises each day, the same days turn into nights, but

now, in this holy month, there is a strong and strange eeling. Today, there is a visible

readiness, a dierent preparation. Today, the heart is ready to accept something. It is

seeding something.

What does the heart need? Guidance rom Allah (s.w.t). His hearts ocus is now

towards Allah (s.w.t), towards the vicinity o his Lord. His concentration is towards

Allah (s.w.t). He is prepared. Hence, Allah (s.w.t), the Merciul, has established the

Holy Month o Ramadhan or the Qurans descendence.

Nuzool (descendence or revelation) o the Quran is not what we generally think it is.

In general, our perception o Nuzool is that which we see, the materialistic and physi-

cal Nuzool, like something lying on the roo coming down or the drop o rain when itcomes down rom the cloud. We say that it has descended, it has come down. It actu-

ally reers to the act o when something comes down to a lower location rom a higher

physical location, just like an elevator in a building. For us, that is descendence. The

Quran has not descended in the orm that it was once in some higher location, some

bodily orm or it was on the seventh heaven and then it came down because heaven is

above us and the is earth below. This is not the way the Quran descended. In act, the

Quran is light, the Quran is guidance, and the Quran is the word o Allah (s.w.t). It

was never beore in any physical location, or ater, or at present. I there exists a loca-

tion or the Quran it is not a physical one. It is a position or a state and that position

is the heart. The heart o a human being is the position o Quran.

The meaning o the descendence o the Quran is that it was in such a state, this guid-

ance o our Lord was in such a position that it was beyond our reach. It was not suit-

able or our understanding. The Quran was in the Lawhe Mahuz (Protected Tablet).

Lawhe Mahuz is not the name o any rame, the way we see wooden tablets or tab-lets made rom stone. It is not the name o any physical tablet. The Lawhe Mahuz is

a position, a status in this entire universal creation, it is one position. And the Quran

was in that high position and we are in this position, a very lowly position, to which

the Quran has reerred to as Asala Saleen:

Now, when the Quran was in the Protected Tablet it was not suitable to understand

or the people sitting in Asala Saleen. The Quran was not suitable to be under-

stood. This does not mean that the Quran was complex, or the Quran was compli-

cated, or that the Quran had some discrepancies. On the other hand the Quran has

always been a curer or us, it has always been a call or us, it has always been distinct,

always clear, always maniested, and a source o enlightenment. But the capacity

o those who want to understand it is limited. Their position is very low, their level

o understanding is very low. Hence, they are not be able to understand the Quran.

As an example, when an intellectual or proessional talk is delivered to a child it is

not that is very complex, dicult or cloudy. What is delivered is that which is very

clearly maniested, however the listener being a child is limited in understanding. The

speaker would be discussing concepts or realities that are beyond the childs level o

understanding.

Sometimes, i the message o the speaker is beyond the reach o his audience, he is

asked to come down a little, lower his level o discussion to one that is understandable,

comprehendible, digestible.

The meaning o Nuzool is the same: to present something in a orm in which it is

understandable, at a lower intellectual level. Presenting the same thing in the manner

that everyone can understand is reerred to as Nuzool. The Quran was above our level

o understanding. In order to enable its essence to reach us it was dressed in words,

whereas previously it was not in the orm o words. This is the meaning o Nuzool

o the Quran: to be available in a orm where we can understand it or at least one

in which we can possess the capability to understand it. And when does the Quran

become understandable? The recitation o the Quran is not enough to reach an un-

derstanding and similarly listening to The Quran does not get us there either. The

center which Allah (s.w.t) has granted us to understand the Quran is our qalb, our

heart. But on this qalb, many seasons pass over it, much is harvested over it. It hasdierent states. Sometimes this heart becomes very hard: Qalb hijaara aw ashaddo

qaswatan, that is, sometimes it is like a stone. In act, even harder than a stone.

Sometimes this heart is Bal Alaha Quloobe Atfabloha, meaning that sometimes the

hearts becomes locked, and sometimes on the heart develops dirt and lth.

According to the expression o the Quran,Rayn ala Quloobehim, layers o dirt have

developed on their hearts. Their hearts are sealed by Allah (s.w.t), Hatamaalaho

Ala Quloobehim. Some hearts are stones, some are harder than the stone, some

4 5

Then We reverted him to the lowest of the low [95:5]


4/5

hearts are those which are locked, some are those on which seals have been placed,

some are those on which dirt has developed, some hearts are those on which a mul-

titude o layers have developed. Allah (s.w.t) has granted this opportunity, the Holy

Month o Ramadhan, to bring their hearts near to the Quran, to build an association

with it. Allah (s.w.t) has blessed us with this opportunity without us asking Him or

it. He realizes our needs. This Holy Month o Ramadhan is the month o spring o

the hearts. Those hardened hearts, those harder than stone hearts, those locked and

sealed hearts, in this month become tender. This is the spring time and in spring time

every land becomes sot. But i this land is let untended, barren, without planting a

seed in this land, without being watered, without any care-taking, then it will remain

dead as it was. Spring will come and go; the land remains hard and rocky. The need

is or us to make this land a arming eld, plant seeds, water it, grow something on it.

This is a very tough land but on the other hand this season is marvelous, the season

o spring. Whatever seed you plant, it will sprout, it will grow out. This is why Allah

(s.w.t) has reerred to the Holy Month o Ramadhan as the month o Nuzool o the

Holy Quran.

Fasting is amongst the essential Adab or etiquettes o this month. The grandeur

and status o the Month o Ramadhan is not because o asting. The grandeur o

the Month o Ramadhan is due to the Quran. Fasting comes under the category o

Adab or this holy month. It is the discipline o the Month o Ramadhan to ast in

this month. The one who does not ast is an ill-mannered person. But it is not that one

who asts will achieve all the blessings o the Quran, or will collect all the blessings

o Month o Ramadhan with just one ast! Fasting makes our hearts tender. Fasting

prepares our soul or a better understanding o the Quran and enables it to properly

accept the guidance.

You would have heard the responses o many believers when they are asked as to why

they did not participate in Quranic lessons, Quranic commentary lessons, and why

Quranic lessons were not organized. Their answer: Because we were asting and it

let us weak, without stamina, and we couldnt stand up during the asts. Examine

how the objective o asting is put aside. Allah (s.w.t) has made asting a prerequisite

to understand the Quran and we consider asting as an obstacle in understanding

the Quran. Why dont you read the Quran? Why dont you perorm other acts o

worship? Why? Because we are asting, is the response. Why dont you read reli-

gious books? Because we are asting, is the response. Is asting an obstacle or a

prerequisite to attain guidance? Allah (s.w.t) has made asting obligatory to enable

us to understand the Quran better and also make others understand better. We think

asting is an obstacle to understanding Quran. It is just an excuse.

Hence, this opportunity is a highly bonded opportunity. Its signicance is much be-

yond what imaginations we have in our minds. This opportunity has been granted by

Allah (s.w.t) to us, without our seeking it, without our invocations. So let us present

these tender hearts, these sot lands in Allahs (s.w.t) presence and say O Allah

(s.w.t), whatever seed you desire, plant it in this land that I am presenting to you. The

seed which Allah (s.w.t) will plant is the seed o guidance in the orm o the Quran. It

is essential to read it, understand it. It is necessary to spend day and night with it. It

is essential to become associated with the Quran. It is essential to become Mahram

(legitimate) to the Quran. The Namaharam (illegitimate) cannot understand the

Quran. Dont become Namaharam to the Quran. Become a Mahram to the Quran.

This expression o Mahramiyat (legitimacy) is a very ne and precise discussion. We

only apply the concept o Maharam and Namahram to gender or male-emale re-

lationships, but Mahramiyat is much broader than that. When you go or Hajj, when

you wear the Ihram you become Mohrim. You enter the Haram o Allah (s), you now

become a Mahram there. The Mohrim, the one who wears the Ihram, becomes a Mah-

ram o Allah (s.w.t) and hence, he says labbaik (I have come). He has entered inside

the our walls, he has entered the Haram, he is a Mohrim now and hence Mahram. He

is now a vicegerent o divine spiritual secrets. In the same manner we should become

Mahram to the Quran. We should not treat the Quran as a Namaharam, and behave

as Namaharam with the Quran. Dont live with the Quran as a stranger.

Accept the Quran. This is the best possible opportunity. You have seen that vegetation

that grows in spring, the harvest which comes out, It remains throughout the year.

Even during the summer some greenery is still visible, some ruits are still present,

and some fowers are still seen. They are not the fowers o summer. They are the same

fowers o spring which remain preserved over summer, and they are preserved during

autumn and winter as well. Those who sleep during the spring time, or them their

spring is also autumn and their spring is also winter. But or those who are awake in

the season on spring, all o the other three seasons are brought to lie by spring.

This is in our control, i we desire we can make our autumn a spring, but the condition

is that we should realize the value o this month. May Allah (s.w.t) give us all the op-

portunity in this Holy Month o Ramadhan. Considering the value o this occasion; by

the will o Allah (s.w.t) we will soak ourselves with the guidance o Quran.

6 7


5/5

MATAB Publications

Bethat Islamic Research Center (B.I.R.C)

Copyright 2009

It is not permitted to reprint this booklet without the permission

o MATAB Publications.

For more inormation or other articles on Islamic Theology and

current aairs visit www.mashrabenaab.com

Documents

Sayed Jawwad Naqvi - Philosophy of Ramadhan