Ramadan as Process:
I an writing this article because it seems to me that there is a major aspect of the Ramadan experience that our scholars are unwilling to talk about -except in the most fleeting terms-its difficulty lol.They much prefer their idealizations and their principles to the lived reality!On the other hand ,in sharp contrast,I was pleased to hear Sheikh Zaid Shakir recently mentioning “the rigours of Ramadan” The local Imam,when the mosque was operating at full capacity,loved,instead, to talk about how quickly it is was passing.”19 days” he would say:”and it passed like a brief moment”.Really?! Yup,a brief moment -of 19 eternities.
So ,all around me I would see and hear of events.Like my very first Tarawih prayer where the Imam fell to the floor writhing in pain.It turned out that the Ramadan dehydration phenomenon had crystallized a stone in his urinary tract requiring an emergency medical procedure.Or the woman who would mention to her friends that her husband, who said he was fine with fasting, was regularly losing his temper for nothing.Or the patients I had to recommend to stop their fast because their depression,which they were already struggling with, had gotten worse! All of this goes on backstage,while in the foreground the ulema are only telling us of the blessings and the benefits- which is also true.
Don’t get me wrong here! I think Ramadan is a wonderful practice- clearly ordained by our Lord for our benefit.But that benefit is spiritual- not physical.And it involves hardship and perseverance and submission to our Lord.If it were otherwise it would not be called “the month of patience”. It is not a beach-party of Divine Presence.For that, no patience would required.
So why do I bring this up?! Because I don’t believe in “denial'”. According to the psychoanalysts,denial is the most primitive form of defense mechanism.And in the Arabic language the root word for denial (k-th-b) is the same as that for lying! So we really don’t want to go there.This attempt at denial ends up being counterproductive! If the ulema were hoping to encourage us by telling us only about the positive aspects and not acknowledging the experience,they have the opposite effect.People who are having difficulty and pain then feel like they are defective,slackers and losers.Is that what we want?! To have a collective assault on our self-worth?That is certainly NOT the intention of our Lord or his Prophet saws
Now,once again,the point here is not to minimize the importance of Ramadan.Allah has ordered it for our benefit.The point is to learn how to manage it in a way that we get the maximum benefit and the least harm.We all know of people who cannot do it-due to diabetes,or migraines or circulatory illness or even in my experience people who are depressed and psychotic.But there are many more subtle and more common issues.Last year, I myself missed a large part of the fast because of the viral illness called Shingles.It was apparent that the fasting had triggered it and it would only get worse if I continued fasting .I had to make up the days during the year.I was content with my decision.And this year all is well,so far! Alhumdulillah.
Others are not so discerning.I remember being with an Irish convert in England who suffered from serious epilepsy.I advised him to do only a partial fast. He wouldn’t listen and had a grand-mal seizure in the Peckham mosque during tarawih prayers in the last ten days.That seizure elicited a huge fitna between the believers in neurology(including myself lol) and those who considered it was “jinn”.A huge conflagration occurred and the police(who were excellently trained unlike in America!) had to be called in to quell the riot!. That is not what we need as Muslims!
Admittedly most Ramadan issues are not quite so dramatic.They are more about managing our energy deficits,dealing with the headaches,the periods of constipation and loss of drive.All of those are reasonably frequent and need to be managed.For most people,Ramadan is a roller-coaster! Periods of loss of energy,loss of motivation followed by moments of barakat and peace and blessings.Some experience tranquility and calm.Others lose their will to to do anything! “it’s all grist for the mill” the psychoanalysts like to say.For us “it’s all service to our Lord”. But, we are not supposed to be increasing the pain through blindness and ignorance.And the blindness we are referring to here mostly involves blindness to our inner experience.
“So what does this mean concretely?”you may ask.And we ARE living in the era of concreteness! It is called Philosophical Materialism or Empirism-and it affects the Muslim psyche just as it affects the social psyche generally.Some examples.When I was still practising psychiatry,I would reduce the number of patients I saw /day and abstain from new evaluations and complex reports since that is what took the most cognitive effort.When I met some Iranian students of agriculture at the local university,they told me they started studying at iftar and studied through the night.”Clever ones” I thought! A member of the Tunisian Olypmpic team told me they did their athletic training at midnight during Ramadan-after the Tarawih prayer.Another brilliant move.But all of that requires awareness and breaking of habits-somehing that is all too rare in many circles!
One of the keys here is NOT to feel guilty about our experience.And not to be a”.Ramadan fasting macho”.The Imams seem to be specialized in making us feel bad! ‘You fasted all day but you had some bad thoughts about a friend.Fasting cancelled”. “You recited some Quran.Did you not know that Imam AbuHanifa and Imam Shafii did two complete Qurans /day.So you’re a slacker”! ” You left after 8 rakats.Don’t you know that 20 is better” And on and on .I call this “The Catholicization of Islam” as the Catholics were adept at making their parishioners feel bad about themselves and regularly sending them to the hell-fires! One of the reasons so many left the Church.
Sheikh Nazim used to tell us that the formula for life was 40 to1- pain to pleasure.My apologies to any hedonists in the audience lol.Ramadan may well be even more acute.But the reward is with Allah.I shudder to think what the outcome would be if it were in the hands of human beings.Actually if you look around at our planet you can see what that would be?! Gradual and systematic destruction! Tawakuultu Ilayhi Wa Huwa Rabb ul Arsh Al Atheem. (We trust in Him and He is the Lord of the Magificent Throne-i.e. the Ultimate Manager!)
So,Ramadan Kareem and Saleem.It’s going to be tough! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! But in the end it’s more than worth it.And it’s well worth managing it skilfuly as well!
The Phenomenology of Ramadan
“Phenomenology” is a relatively new area of inquiry- often associated with such personalities as the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and Martin Heidegger(1889-1976).We will not even attempt to go into the the intricacies of their philosophical systems as this would fly in the face of my most profound conviction about the need for simplicity. I would prefer to sort out a chaotic garage or warehouse space(obviously of my own making lol) than to even attempt such an endeavour.
Nevertheless,I think these schools of thought do represent an important development in our own way of conceiving the world and more specifically the need for us to observe and reflect on our inner experience.This need does not seem to be very present in traditional cultures including Islam where correct behaviour and correct beliefs seemed to suffice.So for most Muslims ,the fact that Allah ordained fasting in the Quran(2:183) and the Prophet saws told us of its benefits and the scholars have determined that the first ten days are for “Rahmat”(mercy) and the second ten are about” forgiveness from God” and the last ten give “freedom from the hellfires” is sufficient.
Being in the modern world, however, some of us, at least, feel the need to go deeper-into the inner experience and this is where phenomenology comes in.We need to look at the inner,experiential reality .
As I reflected on this( it may well have been an inspiration) I realized that an interesting parallel to Ramadan is the experience of pregnancy.The trigger for this thinking may well have been a difficult beginning to this year’s Ramadan and my recollections of the accounts of Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, and her difficult pregnancies being bed-ridden for months at the beginning of each of her pregnancies with overwhelming nausea.The details of her experience are not what is important here however,no more than the details of the philosophical systems of Husserl and Heidegger.What is interesting is that the three trimesters of pregnancy provide an interesting parallel to the three ten-day sections of Ramadan and I believe this can be helpful to us in understanding the process.
So, in Ramadan,the first ten days especially the early ones can be difficult for people.Just as women often experience nausea(morning-sickness) during the first trimester fasters will have a variety of symptoms as they take on the fast-headaches,dizziness,weakness,lack of concentration ,etc. Depending on the state of health of the practitioner this may last only a day or two or may continue for a longer period of time,for some intermittently throughout the month.
The second trimester of pregnancy usually is characterized by a subsidence of the ‘crisis mode’ ,less symptoms,a calmness and a waiting.I would call this phase”paddling” and “incubation”. The baby is slowing growing and developing.The same is true in Ramadan.The worst is over.Now is the time of persistence and patience.
We all know where the third trimester of pregnancy leads! If we have had any contact with a woman going through it,we know they are literally “carrying a heavy load” ,exhausted,breathless at night and anticipating and fretting about the”apocalypse ‘to come.And then it is over.At this point the model breaks down somewhat as Ramadan is not as clearly defines in its finality.So for the last ten days to be more accurate I would add in the model of the Shakespearian play which builds up to its climax(Lailat al Qadr) and its dénouement(the few days left after Lailat al Qadr. And the the Eid celebrations-in both cases.However for the woman, as opposed to the faster,the work has just begun!That is why Allah and his Prophet insist so strongly on the rights of the Mother!
I hope that helps you understand better the inner process of the month of fasting and makes it a more fulfilling and satisfying experience.I feel like it is helping me to think of it this way.And I can’t wait to see the baby at the end! Salaams,ibrahim