Post-Ramadan Reflections on Piety, Supplication and Parking
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Alhamdulillah, Muslims were able to complete their obligatory fasting in the month of Ramadan during the longest days in the hottest season of the year. Much against the apprehensions of people of weak faith like me, the whole month passed by as Ay-yamam Ma’adoodath (few counted days) as mentioned in the Qur’an (Ch2 V184), Summa Alhamdulillah.
Even though this fasting is a ritual where Muslims abstain from food, drink, and sexual activity from dusk to dawn for a whole month, it has a purpose. The purpose as the Quran says is: So that you may develop Taqwa (Ch2 V183).
Taqwa is the consciousness that God is watching all our actions. It is roughly translated into English as piety. This consciousness is what makes a believer abstain from the permitted food, drink and sexual activity with spouse even though he has plenty of opportunity to indulge in it in moments of privacy. By undergoing this exercise in self-restraint in matter related to his legitimate need for food, drink, and permitted sexual activity, the individual develops a temper to refrain from what is illegal and immoral to become a pious person. The reason why Allah wants us to become pious is not to flaunt our piety before others, but to build a society of pious individuals who adhere to the norms of piety and thus build a society of justice, peace, sharing and caring free of all fears and exploitation. The people of piety will not exploit the weak when they are strong. They will not try to fool the less intelligent when they feel that they are brainy. They will not indulge in anything that disrupts social harmony at micro and macro level. Therefore the first command that Allah gives after the commands related to fasting is to end the monetary corruption in order to build a just, happy and prosperous society. The Qur'an says: Do not take away the wealth of each other unjustly by bribing the officials to get from them knowingly what is not your legitimate due (Ch2 V188).
It is unfortunate that corruption is the biggest problem which faces the Muslim world today. There may be many reasons for it, but this practice must stop. Otherwise the paradox of fasting and corruption will cause more damage to our societies and defame the efficacy of true religion in tackling the problems of mankind. We are making a mockery of word Islam and Muslim in Muslim countries where some devout Muslims fast and pray relentlessly for the good of their country and a bright future for themselves and their children, while some of the intelligent and powerful amongst them are looting it with impunity. Corruption can stop only if those who have made big money fairly or unfairly voluntarily share their wealth with the less fortunate rather than use it to buy real assets with their virtual money causing inflation and create more problems for the disenfranchised and push more of them into the hands of extremists. Prince Tallal of Saudi Arabia sometime back in an interview to Charlie Rose had said that he will be giving most of his wealth in charity. As per a news item appearing in Dawn during the month of Ramadan, Prince Tallal has now decided to give all his wealth in charity. If the prince and the others who have made millions and billions spend their money to reconstruct Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia etc., world economy will get a fillip that no war will ever give to satisfy the money makers.
This apart it will stop the menace of extremism and militancy which is plaguing the world by giving hope to those who are disenfranchised. If Muslims all over the world do this after the fasting in the month of Ramadan it means they have achieved the objective of piety for which Allah had put them through rigors of fasting, otherwise we will have spent another month of hunger and thirst for no reason.
It is in human nature to do things that benefit a person. It is therefore pertinent for him to ask as to why he has to suffer a long day of hunger and thirst and control his libido; it is also pertinent for him to ask for whom he is doing this and what he will get in return from him for whom he is doing this. Answering these questions Allah says: If my servants ask you O Muhamad about Me, tell them that I am close to them and will answer to their call when they supplicate to Me (Ch2 V106). With all the weakness of their faith and deficiencies of their prayers when Muslims of Southern California called Allah after Eid prayer to bless the drought-affected parched land, Allah answered to their supplication and we had some rain, Alhamdulillah. If we develop the faith worthy of His attention towards us, and repent from our mistakes Allah will fulfill his promise that He will shower his blessings from sky and from the earth (Ch7 V96).
During this Ramadan many mosques had some problems in using the parking spaces that were available in their neighborhood to them all these years especially on Fridays and during the nights of Qiyams. This caused some parking nightmares to worshippers. We as a community should reflect sincerely on this problem and see if this might have been because of our own inability to use the generosity of our neighbors the way they had specified. We should also see if we have failed in showing our gratitude enough to them to secure the continuity of the privilege. Allah says in Qur’an Allah does not takes away the gifts bestowed upon us except because of our inability to take proper care of it (Ch8 V53). Therefore it is very important that our scholars in Friday sermons not only talk on spiritual and religious issues, but also on civic issues especially the right of neighbors living around mosques.
In a hadith of Sahih Muslim Nabi SA has said that faith has more than sixty branches, the lowest is removing and harmful object from the way and the highest is to worship Allah alone, and modesty is a part of faith. This hadith clearly emphasizes upon a faithful the importance of making sure that mankind is not hurt even by a thorn which is on the road even before he attempts to reach its zenith to understand the reality of Allah and worshiping Him. Therefore we should be mindful that we do not cause any inconvenience to our neighbors when we attend the various programs and if the Masjid authority can’t ensure it, it is better not to conduct it.
Our attending congregational prayer is essential but for this we should not block the driveway of the neighborhood of the mosque or park on the wrong side of the road, or park in a spot that is allotted specifically to a business and thus deprive him of his customer. All this behavior is not only creating a non-cooperative attitude among our neighbors but can also result in cancellation of permits to our Masajids. Therefore, we should be careful. I have the following few suggestions to those who are managing the affairs of mosques.
Mosques should issue annual parking passes to the Muslims in the neighborhood who attend the programs of the mosque for Friday prayer and other special occasions on a cost restricting this number to the number of parking spaces they have on their premises and the one they have negotiated in their neighborhood. They should use this money to administer the parking issue of their mosque. Those who are not able to get these passes and who come from other far off areas should try to make their own arrangements for Friday prayer and other celebrations in their own area in order to relieve the bigger mosques of many an administrative problems that they face due to huge attendance on such occasions.
Of the many concessions that were given to Nabi SA in observance of religion, one was that the whole earth was made a mosque for his followers. Therefore Muslims can pray anywhere; they need not go to bigger mosques except to the one in Mecca, Madinah and Jerusalem. Friday prayer should be made in a Jamia Masjid but in its absence in the land where we live we have been given some concession by the local jurists which we must follow. In presence of a good number of Huffaz and Aalims in the community it will not be impossible for Muslims in every area to have their own arrangement for Friday prayer and observance of Qiyam during Ramadan, etc. This will be an opportunity for these young Ulema and Huffaz to practice their knowledge instead of aggregating in one mosque for their chance to exhibit it. In these days of advanced technology it is not difficult for these satellite Islamic centers to benefit from the sermons of their favorite speakers on big screens in their place, either live or later, instead of travelling long distances to big mosques inconveniencing themselves and the host mosque. These small congregations will be a good place of productive intra-community and inter-community outreach taking away all the problems of unhealthy crowding in big mosques. Instead of building big mosques Muslims should focus on small area centers and should spend their hard earned money on educational, economic and social issues facing the community.
These suggestions are nothing new but we have stopped putting them into practice because of our complacency in the fact that few big mosques have come up in the area to cater to some of our needs.
