Ramadan: A School for the Soul | Shaykh Yahya Rhodus | Guardians of the Heart Conference

Ramadan: A School for the Soul

This very month that we're in is a month that our Prophet said is one that people oftentimes are heedless of, because it comes between Rajab — the seventh month of the Hijri calendar — and the ninth month, which is the blessed month of Ramadan. This is a time where oftentimes people fall into heedlessness, but our Prophet wanted us to be aware that this is a month where we especially have to prepare.

And when we think about what the month of Ramadan can do for us — this is what I was asked to speak about — and how it is a protection, how it can guard us from the various types of temptation. It requires, and I think this is especially important in our time, where one of the things that turns people away from religion in general, and for Muslims away from their deen, is not understanding the profundity and how deep every single Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is. Every single Sunnah is deep and profound. Every single Sunnah is packed with wisdoms, and there are wisdoms beyond our possible imagination of the fast.

Now the amazing thing is that no matter what we come to know about those wisdoms, the greater wisdoms are actually even hidden from us. But if you look at Ramadan, one of the things that scholars teach us — which is really helpful — is that they say Ramadan is a madrasa, and we should approach it as such. It is a school. Those 29, or blessed 30, days that we fast. And every Ramadan that the Prophet fasted was 29 days except one — he fasted 30 — and they mention the wisdom of that is so that if any of us fast only 29 days one Ramadan, we don't feel like we missed out or that it was somehow incomplete. Every Ramadan he fasted was 29 except one, which was 30. صلى الله عليه وسلم

Ramadan as a Madrasa

But if we approach Ramadan as a madrasa, it is a school. It is in some ways a training camp. And if you look at the three verses in Surah al-Baqarah that relate to fasting — how does Allah approach it in addressing the believers? What does he say?

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those who came before you, so that perhaps you will be people of taqwa."

Look at the beautiful way that Allah has done this. Look at how gently he gives us this obligation. He could have said that he made this an obligation upon us. But first of all, he speaks to the believers — "O you who believe" — meaning you already have faith in your heart, so when he addresses you, it brings that faith to the surface. And then he uses the mabni lil-majhul, the passive tense, and the effect on the heart is that it is much lighter for us to accept:

Not كَتَبَ — "he prescribed upon you" — but كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ — "fasting has been prescribed for you." And then to further ease it: كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ — "as it has been prescribed for those who came before you." So in addition to using the passive tense, he said this is also something that people before you have done; it was an obligation for them as well. But then to also direct this to our intellects — which, in reflecting upon it, will affect the heart in its readiness to do this — لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ — he gives us the reason for it, one of the wisdoms. This is definitive because it is Quran: in order that perhaps you will be people of taqwa.

The Depth of Taqwa

Now taqwa is actually something really deep. It's not something on a surface level. There is actually a lot that you have to know to really be a person of taqwa. It requires that we know something about our hearts. It requires we know something about the different thoughts that human beings have, because all voluntary action begins with the thought. It requires that we know something about what we incline toward as human beings. It requires that we have a basic knowledge at least of the sacred law, and that then fuels the intellect's ability to sift through all of this.

Because the nature of decisions that we have is that when you first have a thought, you have a natural response as a human being — an inclination towards it. But this is where the intellect can now intervene. What does it do? It has to sift through it: should I do this? Should I not do this? What's the nature of that thought? Should I put it aside or should I follow up on it? And all of this takes place even before we get to the intention.

So when Allah says that fasting has been prescribed for us, one of the greatest things that we can learn from the madrasa of Ramadan is to practically be a person of taqwa. How is that done?

The Essence of Fasting is Restraint

The essence of fasting is restraint. What are you doing? Fasting is very simple — it is one of the easiest chapters in fiqh. At least in the Shafi'i school, there are two obligations: you make the intention, and then you avoid anything that breaks your fast. That's it. Yes, there are some detailed fatawa — on intravenous injections, for example, whether they are permissible or not — there are some detailed issues of course. But essentially it is that simple. You make an intention and you avoid anything that breaks your fast. Those are the obligations.

But what are you doing? You're restraining. Fasting is about abstaining. And in that process, think about the implications of this. And again, we oftentimes don't think about this while we're fasting — you don't even need to intend it, it is a natural consequence of fasting. Think about the world in which we live — the hyper-consumerism, the hyper-gluttony of the world — and here we are, abstaining. We're cutting back on things that we normally like as human beings. We're saying no, because my Lord commanded me to do this.

And this is why it is such a beautiful form of worship. And it's not something that's easy. But when you have those moments while you're fasting where it becomes hard — don't just give in. Challenge yourself. Say: no, I'm not going to just let myself get tired and then give up. Yes, the first few days it might be a little bit difficult, but challenge yourself. Remind yourself and motivate yourself in those moments when it gets hard: why am I doing this? And you can actually bring about a state of love — this is about love, I'm going to push myself to do this out of love. And if you push yourself a little bit, then it will start to flow naturally and very easily.

Precisely because we're training ourselves to abstain, and out of the mercy of Allah, it's only a few hours — from dawn all the way until sunset — that the things we normally partake in, we refrain from. The essence of taqwa is about restraint and abstaining.

The Five Degrees of Taqwa

The scholars have said there are five degrees of taqwa.

The first degree of taqwa is taqwa al-kufr — anything that, were you to do it, would be tantamount to and constitute disbelief. That is the most important type of taqwa that we have to have. We have to learn a Quranic creed and believe in Allah as he tells us in his book. This is the most important thing of all.

And in the Jawahir al-Quran of Imam al-Ghazali, he has this beautiful statement about the essence of the Quran and what it was sent down for. He says:

"The secret of the Quran, its utter essence, and its ultimate aim is the calling of Allah's servants to the Lord Most High, the Lord of this world and the Hereafter, the Lord of the Great Heavens and everything that is beneath the earth."

What is the whole purpose of the Quran? It's to call us to Allah so that we can come to know our Lord. And then he says the three most important categories of the Quran are: ta'rif al-mad'u — making known the one that we are being called to. How many verses end with names of Allah, and oftentimes in pairs? Everything that we need to know about Allah is in the book of Allah. He tells us about himself. He tells us about his attributes. He tells us who he is. And this is one of the greatest things that we can do to protect ourselves from false beliefs: learn the Quranic creed.

Then there is a second degree of taqwa, where now you want to rid your life of the haram. And to frame this within muhabba — love — I really believe this is important. We create environments for people in our time where they understand why the rules of Islam are so important.

When I told you about the hadith Qudsi and about how you find in it special narrations about our relationship with our Lord — one of the most famous, the hadith in Bukhari, where Allah says to his servant:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

"My servant will draw near to me with nothing more beloved to me than that which I have made an obligation upon him. And my servant will continue to draw near to me with voluntary works until I love him." Allah is saying this — on the tongue of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — that the frame behind why we do everything that we do, and why we avoid what Allah told us to avoid, is so we can become beloved to Allah. That is amazing. And were that not possible, he would not have said it. And then everything that comes after that is the result: "Once I love him..." — to the end of the blessed hadith.

So the frame is one of love. And if we can train ourselves and the people around us, and our families, and give them this perspective — when they do it out of love, when we do it out of love, it takes on a very different meaning.

So what we want is to rid our lives of things that Allah has said "don't do this." And were you to actually add up the prohibitions compared to all of the things that are permissible, it's just a tiny fraction of all the different things we can possibly do. Think about it in terms of food: of all things, when you enter into a grocery store — the average grocery store has something like 60,000-plus products — how many products in the entire grocery store can you not eat? What percentage? Most things in the store you can eat. You enter into a 40,000 square foot average supermarket — and they're even bigger than that now — and most of what's in there you can eat. Allah is merciful.

The second degree of taqwa is to rid our lives of the haram. And then it gets a little bit more subtle. The third level is avoiding the things that are doubtful. At the fourth level, you want to even stop being excessive in what is permissible. And this is the rank of the Sahaba. There is an amazing narration where they said: during the time of the Messenger of Allah, we used to leave nine tenths of what is permissible. That's amazing. That's the rank of the Sahaba and the elect of the Siddiqeen throughout the ages. That's not our rank.

And then the highest degree is the most spiritual — where it is about constantly being in a state of remembrance of Allah. We are working on the first two; maybe some of us can move to the third level. But the point here is: what do all five degrees have in common? There is restraint. We are abstaining from something. At the lowest level, we're abstaining from something that would take us outside the fold of Islam. Then we move up — we're abstaining from something that is unlawful. Then there is a higher degree where we are creating a further barrier between us and what is displeasing to Allah.

So how does this work? If for 29 or 30 days you actively fast from dawn until sunset, you are training yourself in a very practical way to be a person of taqwa. And if you can do that for 29 or 30 days, then certainly you can do that after that. You develop a momentum. And this is why our Prophet said صلى الله عليه وسلم:

"If you give Ramadan its right — if you truly do what you can in this blessed month — there is a direct impact that it will have on the remaining part of the year." It will give you a momentum to roll up your sleeves and to be a person of taqwa.

And perhaps this is one of the wisdoms of why our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم encouraged us to fast six days of Shawwal — because immediately, we don't want it to stop in Ramadan. We want it to carry over and continue into Shawwal, to continue into Dhul Qa'da, to continue into Dhul Hijja. Every year, every year, we have a further opportunity to be able to do this.

So the nature of the fast itself is there to practically teach us to be people of taqwa. This is one of the great wisdoms of this blessed month of Ramadan.

Siyam and Qiyam: Fasting and the Quran

But then if you keep reading in Allah's book, what does he say, to further this point of making it easy upon us?

"A set number of days" — أَيَّامًا مَّعْدُودَاتٍ — it's only a set number of days. Look at how many things he said to make it easy for us to embrace the fast. And then he gives a rukhsa, a dispensation: anyone of you who is sick or on a journey can make up these days at a later time.

But then Allah connects it to the other meanings of Ramadan. The two main things that we do in Ramadan are siyam and qiyam — fasting and standing in prayer. What are you doing in prayer? You are reciting the book of Allah. These two go hand in hand. If we are following the correct etiquette of fasting, the day prepares us for the night. If we're fasting right, it enables us to stand before Allah in Tarawih, and then to be able to benefit from the book of Allah.

And I reflected upon this when looking at the verse that comes right after:

"The month of Ramadan in which the Quran was revealed — a guidance for people, and clear proofs of guidance and the Criterion." We know that it was revealed from the Lawh al-Mahfuz to the sama' al-dunya on one night — on Laylatul Qadr — in the blessed month of Ramadan. But then what does Allah say about the nature of this book? هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ — it is guidance for people.

The very Quran itself, in its recitation — even if you don't understand Arabic — you are benefiting. Our teachers say that even someone who knows Arabic very well may have verses they don't fully understand. But when you're standing in Tarawih, hearing the beautiful recitation of the Imam, know that these are the words of Allah and have ta'dheem — exalt this book in your heart. And there will be meanings that come to your heart even if you don't understand the Arabic being recited. In other words, it is not a prerequisite for benefiting from the Quran that you understand it. Yes — learn the Arabic language and have it explained to you; that is a further dimension. But even the Quran itself will give to you even without an understanding of Arabic. This is really important, so we don't get disillusioned.

The Inner Etiquettes of Listening to the Quran

The first two etiquettes that the scholars mention when we listen to the book of Allah are inner etiquettes of recitation. The first is to know what we are listening to — these are the eternal words, the speech of Allah — and then have ta'dheem, exalt him.

The story they mention is that of Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl. I'm always taken aback whenever I see this name, especially when they mention the name of his father, Abu Jahl. Were the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم not to have been merciful, how would Ikrimah have been the one they mention as an example of how we are supposed to be with the book of Allah? They say that when he would take out the Quran, he would hold it up and say:

"These are the words of my Lord. These are the words of my Lord." And there were times he would actually pass out because he realized — these are the words of Allah.

Think about it: when the Prophet comes to Fatima Makkah — the conquest of Mecca — Ikrimah flees to the coast, believing he had a bounty on his head. Yet the Prophet sends his shirt صلى الله عليه وسلم as a token of safe passage, so he knows there is a man of honor and he can return safely to Mecca. Then he becomes Muslim, then he becomes a great Muslim, and he has this profound relationship with the book of Allah.

Look at the mercy of the Prophet and the way that he forbade his commanders to speak ill of his worst enemy. Abu Jahl was among the worst enemies of any Prophet. Pharaoh — towards the end of his life — said that he believed in the God of Bani Israel, but it was too late. But Abu Jahl, as he was being slain in battle, said: "Cut my head off here so that when he sees my head, he'll see me having died in enmity — I am his enemy in this world and in the hereafter." نَعُوذُ بِاللهِ — that is just perdition. But despite this, look at what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did. He came to guide people. And look at how he dealt with these companions in this beautiful way.

Ramadan as a Madrasa of Shukr

So, Ramadan is first a practical madrasa to attain taqwa. And then it is also a madrasa to attain shukr — gratitude to Allah — where the motivation of our worship becomes one of gratitude. Look at what Allah says at the end of these verses:

"...in order that you may glorify Allah for that to which he has guided you, and that perhaps you will be grateful." In order that you may be people of shukr — in order that you may think of Allah — so that the motivation of our worship becomes one of gratitude.

The Verse of Du'a: Proximity to Allah

But the real key is to look at the next verse. If you want to know what Ramadan can do for you and the door it can open up for you to have a relationship with Allah — this is life in its entirety. This should be the only purpose here — ultimately to die having a close relationship to Allah. This is what everybody seeks. This is what everybody truly wants. This is how our Prophet was, and this is what he ingrained in the Sahaba and the countless righteous scholars and pious folk — men and women alike — after him. This is what they all wanted.

But look at what the madrasa of Ramadan does. Read the next verse:

"And when my servants ask you about me — indeed I am near. I answer the call of the one supplicating when he calls upon me. So let them respond to me and let them believe in me, so that perhaps they will be rightly guided."

Notice here how many times Allah speaks in the first person. وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ — "When your servants ask about me, say that I am near." There is no intermediary in this verse. It is noted in the Tafsir of Jalalayn that the companions came to the Prophet and asked: "Is our Lord close, so we whisper to him — fanunajihi — or is he far away, so we call out to him — funadihi?" There is a difference between munaja and munada: if someone is at the other end of the room, you call out to them, but if they are close, you converse with them intimately. And then Allah revealed this verse.

فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ — "Indeed I am near." Allah does not have كَرِيمٌ and لَئِيمٌ as a pair — he is not in between near and far — for he is only قَرِيبٌ. That is an amazing verse. If you think about it: "When my servants ask about me, say that I am near." Allah is telling us that one of the wisdoms we can draw from these verses — and they can be understood in many different ways — is that this is naturally the consequence of putting the three verses that come before it into practice. If you have an illuminated heart, you are going to ask illuminated questions. You can tell a lot about people by how they speak, what they talk about, what they are inclined toward. And this is someone asking what a radiant question — and then look at what Allah revealed in response.

After that recognition that Allah is close to us — and he is of course closer to us than our own jugular vein — the first etiquette when you realize Allah is close is that you turn to him. You supplicate him in all of your affairs, small and large, worldly and religious, this world and the hereafter — everything. The first etiquette is that we realize du'a is the marrow of worship. This is the way that we turn to Allah and show our impoverishment before him and call upon him.

And then فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي — "Let them respond to me." So we supplicate him at all times, and if we realize that he is close, we should respond to Allah and to what he has called us to in his book and on the tongue of his Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي — "And let them believe in me" — let him hold on to his faith and increase in it.

He is already speaking to the people of belief — يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا — yet he says increase in belief. لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ — "so that perhaps they will be rightly guided." Look at the beauty of Allah's words and what he is calling us to, and we should see these as blessings — every single one of these great Sunnahs of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is an opportunity for our hearts to be enriched, for us to receive great blessings in this world and in the hereafter.

Closing: Making the Most of Ramadan

We should always remember that the people who have already transitioned from this world to the hereafter — if they could come back to this world, they would want to just remember Allah one more time, to do just a little bit more. We are here now, and as has just been mentioned, we should all make du'a that this Ramadan is one of the best Ramadans ever for us, and that every year it is even better and better.

And we ask him to bless this month to be a blessed month for all of us, for the ummah of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. It is a month of faraj and relief, and of widespread benefit for many people worldwide.

يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ — وَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ