Image source: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>This is Day 18 of the #30Days30Writers 2016 Ramadan series.<\/em><\/p>\nBy Ali Asadullah<\/strong><\/p>\nRamadan 1437 is shaping up to be one of THOSE Ramadans for me. You know the ones: They feel long and arduous; and for some reason you\u2019re just not feeling it<\/em> the way you\u2019d like.<\/p>\nMaybe it\u2019s my recent long-haul flight just before the start of the month. Maybe it\u2019s the hours and hours of driving through the cornfields of our great nation. Maybe it\u2019s these dang kids working on my last nerve. Maybe it\u2019s the health issues that prevent me from fasting, which is the centerpiece of spiritual introspection for most Muslims at this blessed time of year.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, and we just buried my childhood hero, Muhammad Ali, and some nut job went on a murderous rampage, which probably killed the Ramadan vibe for many an American Muslim. And, I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention the incident last week at the mosque where I was planning to take my family, in which a non-Muslim entered the prayer hall in the middle of prayer and shouted \u201cMay I have your attention please!\u201d giving the multitude in attendance the clear impression that they might indeed be praying their last prayer.<\/p>\n
So yeah, I\u2019m not exactly feeling it<\/em> this Ramadan; and I\u2019m going to go out on a limb and suggest that many other Muslims might not be in full Ramadan flow either. It\u2019s at times like these that I like to do some of my deeper reflection on Islam and the current status of my Imaan<\/em> (faith).<\/p>\nFor me, such introspection invariably leads to the big issues and questions related to Islam; and it is through my ruminations on these big issues that I am able to give myself advice on what I need to do in order to be the successful Muslim I strive to be. Therefore, I would like to share some of that advice.<\/p>\n
The main piece of advice I often settle upon is to keep my eyes on the prize. If I don\u2019t reflect on anything else, this one insight reliably works to set me straight, as I am able to cascade it through pretty much everything else in my spiritual life.<\/p>\n
So what, you ask, is the prize?<\/p>\n
The way I see it, there is only one reason that any of us are Muslims. And here I will provocatively quote the recently deceased Prince Rogers Nelson:<\/p>\n
Dearly beloved
\nWe are gathered here today
\nTo get through this thing called \u201clife\u201d
\nElectric word, life
\nIt means forever and that\u2019s a mighty long time
\nBut I\u2019m here to tell you
\nThere\u2019s something else
\nThe afterworld<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cBut Ali!\u201d you interject. \u201cWhy are you quoting Prince? It\u2019s Ramadan, he wasn\u2019t Muslim, wore high heels and butt-less pants and represented much of the hedonism that Islam stridently shuns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ok, I get that. But this article is about me. Not about you. So, sit down. Maybe you\u2019ll learn a thing or two from your old boy Ali.<\/p>\n
You see, Prince\u2019s own tragic end is a reminder for me as a middle-aged man; and 2016 has been a heck of a reminder for people of a certain age. The icons of our youth have been dying left and right: Muhammad Ali, Prince, David Bowie, Phife Dawg of a Tribe Called Quest, Harper Lee of \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d fame, Natalie Cole, Prince Be of PM Dawn and internet fighting legend Kimbo Slice, among others.<\/p>\n
All of them have entered the afterworld, an afterworld that, as a Muslim, I understand isn\u2019t guaranteed to be immediately \u201ca world of never-ending happiness,\u201d where \u201cyou can always see the sun, day or night.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is as if we are becoming unmoored from our youthful memories and are being set adrift into the rip current of later life that drags us out to sea. There we face the storms and tempests that will test us until our respective ships finally founder, taking us to our final resting places.<\/p>\n
I am reflecting upon all of this during this Ramadan. I am putting into perspective the fact that the reason I am Muslim is because there is a thing called an afterlife, where the goal is Jannah<\/em> (paradise).<\/p>\nSome may object to my motivation, arguing that we are Muslim for a range of other reasons; and I do accept that we could view our purpose in life as being more of an abstraction with the goal being a relationship with Allah and a desire for him to be pleased with us.<\/p>\n
However, when we ask why we would want such a relationship and why we would wish to seek Allah\u2019s approval in the first place, we always arrive at the same end:\u00a0 The afterlife. You see, this life has consequences and repercussions with respect to the eternity into which we will all pass. As Muslims we all know this and recognize this; but to what degree to we truly internalize this and put into practice in our lives?<\/p>\n
For me personally, the nifty details of the religion can distract from the ultimate goal; whereby you can\u2019t see the forest for the trees. I see such distraction both in myself and in other Muslims I encounter.<\/p>\n
We obsess over hand positions in prayer, the exact moment we break our fasts, the use of proper supplications in various situations, the permissibility or impermissibility of using eardrops during Ramadan, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n
We become like those athletes for whom the workout or the exercise is the goal, not the health or level of competitive performance they wish to achieve.<\/p>\n
Well as far as I\u2019m concerned, I\u2019ve got an ultimate goal. I have every intention of, at the very least, being that last, soot-covered, parched soul that Allah pulls from the Hellfire and grants admission to the lowest level of Paradise. Everything else is a corollary or byproduct of this goal. And when life gets rough, I find it most centering to remind myself of this goal in the hope that I can pull back, see the big picture and get myself strategically aligned for Paradise.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s what I\u2019m up to this Ramadan. It\u2019s been rough, but I\u2019m still in the game, and so are you. So stay penitent, stay humble, stay focused and have a blessed remainder of the month.<\/p>\n
Ali Asadullah was formerly the founding editor of iViews.com<\/span>, one of the first American Muslim news and views publications on the internet. He writes on a range of topics related to Islam, Muslims, current affairs, and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is Day 18 of the #30Days30Writers 2016 Ramadan series. By Ali Asadullah Ramadan 1437 is shaping up to be one of THOSE Ramadans for me. You know the ones: They feel long and arduous; and for some reason you\u2019re just not feeling it the way you\u2019d like. Maybe it\u2019s my recent long-haul flight just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1646],"tags":[855,909,910,1719,1721,273,1718,866,1650,1717,1720,1504],"class_list":["post-6922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-30-days-30-writers-2016","tag-30days30writers","tag-30-days","tag-30-writers","tag-afterlife","tag-fast","tag-fasting","tag-jannat","tag-loss","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-prince","tag-prize","tag-ramadan"],"yoast_head":"\n
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