may this Ramadhan be a blessing and expiation from the sins of the past, and may You permit me to meet another Ramadhan in the year ahead, Amin.
as i was heard this song, i suddenly realised how it related so much to my experience of Ramadhan this year. and how even in the most unexpected places, you hear prayers to the Almighty. this song is entitled Stand Inside Your Love, by the Smashing Pumpkins. And as i recalled the lyrics, i just thought about how it read to me, as a muslim in this blessed month.
"You and me...meant to be
Immutable, impossible
It's destiny, pure lunacy
Incalculable, insufferable"
This first verse spoke to me of the nature of the human soul, created in a state of fitrah, destined to seek a higher purpose of knowing the Almighty and to submit to His Greatness - a nature which cannot be changed, or denied, across the span of time and space.
The fitrah is the natural inclination to worship God alone, and it includes compliance with what God and His Messenger explained to be from the characteristics of fitrah. The acts of fitrah are specific features which God has created in man and found within his natural tendency to like as well as to dislike what contradicts these acts. The great Islamic scholar al-Sayyuti said: "The best explanation of fitrah is that it is the Sunnah (way) of all of the Prophets which is in agreement with (all of) the revealed Laws, indicating that it is a response to naturally created inclinations. In the Holy Quran, Almighty God, the Most High and Exalted, has identified the pure fitrah with which He created mankind:
"So set your purpose for religion as a man upright (hanifan) by nature (fitrah) - the nature (fitrah) framed by God, in which He created mankind. There is no altering (the Laws of ) the creation of God." (Holy Qur'an Chapter 30, Verse 30)
"But for the last time
You're everything that I want and ask for
You're all that I'd dreamed
Who wouldn't be the one You Love
Who wouldn't stand inside Your Love
Protected and the lover of "
The second verse reflects a dialogue between the 'abid and his Lord. In complete submission, and in true worship, what better prayer and wish can one have... than to be one who is in his Lord's Pleasure and Love, and receiving His Protection, on the day when no one else can protect save Him. and as i reflect this last night of Ramadhan, a blessed month where prayers are answered, it may be the last time that i may be allowed to make this cry to Him in this month, for who knows of my destiny...
"A pure soul and beautiful - you
Don't understand, don't feel me now
I will breathe for the both of us
Travel the world, traverse the skies
Your home is here within my heart"
According to Abu Hurairah, the Holy Messenger said:"God says, 'My servant becomes closer to Me by performing those deeds which are obligatory on him. And he gets close to Me through constant observance of optional (nafila) prayer until he becomes My beloved. When he becomes My beloved, I become his ears through which he hears, his eyes through which he sees, and his hand with which he holds, and his feet with which he walks." In repentance, in contemplation of creation, and in submission, the 'abid returns to his original self of fitrah and does not seek any other purpose aside from his Lord. And when the Lord accepts him in that state, the 'abid is fully provided for, for the Lord Sees to his every need and is well-pleased with his every deed.
"And for the first time
I feel as though I am reborn in my mind
Recast as child and mystic sage,
Who wouldn't be the one you love
Who wouldn't stand inside your love"
and the gift of ramadhan to the believer is the expiation of sins of the past, and state of rebirth, where the slate of actions is wiped clean. Narrated Abu Huraira (Volume 3, Book 31, Number 125): The Prophet said, "Whoever established prayers on the night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be forgiven; and whoever fasts in the month of Ramadan out of sincere faith, and hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be forgiven."
and for those whom have been blessed, the month also gives a state of heightened spiritual awareness, where the experience of ramadhan goes beyond just the physical realm, but allows the 'abid to understand and perceive the hidden hikmahs.
"And for the first time
I'm telling you how much I need and bleed for
Your every move and waking sound
In my time
I'll wrap my wire around your heart and your mind
You're mine forever now"
the 'abid becomes aware of how much he needs Ramadhan as a guide for his own journey towards his Lord, and how much Ramadhan has given him. The blessings of the month is worth more than all the luxuries in the world, where each deed is multiplied, by the Lord's grace. and the 'abid realises how his own weaknesses will draw him down in the time to come, when Ramadhan leaves him, and he cries for a firm resolution to be set upon his heart on this final night, that his weaknesses leave him, and that Ramadhan has made him a better person.
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