Lets pack

On arrival of Sha'ban...soon to be Ramadan...

Bis'millah ...

Happiness: is a universal need shared by all of mankind. Just as without basic necessities of life man cannot survive, without happiness man cannot move forward and only regress into a state of the 'living dead'. Just as one commits a wrongdoing, he does so for happiness, either a personal pleasurable feeling he gains, acceptance by peers within society, etc. In contrast, just as the altruist may drop a few coins or slide a dollar onto the can of a homeless wanderer, he does so for personal pleasure, for in doing such an act he personally benefits by feeling good about himself. Therefore if happiness is something necessitated by man then how is it that we do not strive for it ourselves? From last Fall to this one, how far have we walked towards happiness? Within our society the concept of happiness is associated with green and the need to grow more money trees and exist within our own materialistic havens. However how often do we strive towards the green and material and how often are we let down? Just as fast as birthday candles are blown out these doses of happiness die out as well.

When is it that we worked on our never ending candle? A flame that when lit from within only grows and continues to brighten and create light within us and eventually around us. When will we work on our flames? When is it that we will realize within weeks how elated we feel with the blessed month of Ramadan in our lives. And that soon it will leave and what we felt, that one moment of bliss will not remain and our flames, if they were there, will die out just as fast. Within 11 months how much have we transgressed, regressed and worked backwards from what we had? or what we could have had?

Has our relationship with God been pondered upon? Have we looked in retrospect? Or in wonderment? How low have we felt? And for those who feel as if relationship is satisfying, how incorrectly do we perceive reality and why have we settled for nothing except nothing itself. Regardless of our lowly state, or a higher one which we may have gained with rigorous effort, or our feelings of happiness, or lack thereof, or our aspirations or our deeds, or transgressions, how does this affect our Creator? Indeed, they does not. Our Lord is our Lord and in all his attributes, He, Allah swt, does not change nor is affected by our states. Yet it is us who in every way, shape and form are affected by our relationship with him, our need for him, our aspiring need for love to love him, our dependence.....our everything.

So just as cancer patients when they have minimal hope of survival check into hospital for final treatment, why do we not check in to Ramadan? Why do we not put away our deceiving, worldly aspirations in exchange for what may be our only hope for restoration? When everything is working in our favor, and yet we choose to work against it or settle for nothing because within our heads we justify our intentions with our sloppy deeds and settle for apathy and become lethargic in our actions.

In last 11 months have we been preparing? Realizing Ramadan had left us then, were we eager to get it back, to restore ourselves to work against our nafs which throughout the years trod back to path of corruption? And yet within our tradition, people would fast 4 months into Ramadan if not more and set such rich goals months in advance, so they could walk right into Ramadan, ready to go, with all their luggage. Instead of try to scrummage around for belongings like us and by the time the last 10 days arrived we felt a moment or two of bliss, but it was too late; there was only a week left. We walked away heads drooping from what could have been revolutionary to our own states. And again we left what could have been and then unpacked our suitcases so fast as if Ramadan was a coincidental detour not a stop in the clinic to rejuvenate our souls and our states.

The month of Shaban started, we have less than 30 days left and yet our preparations again may be materialistic as we bubble in social events with which to break our fasts, and cook extravagant meals and bring alive happiness, again happiness that is only temporary, surreal and unfulfillable.

So then what are we living for? And what have we been living for, if it isn't happiness itself? And when moments arrive to redefine our definition and to work towards truth, how do we treat it? How do we treat an entire 30 days? How shall we treat it...? Now? when there's only 30 days to go until our optimal chance to check into the clinic... Sadly, the thought of packing hasn't even crossed our minds.


*side note - readers discretion - these are just my thoughts on the matter...a lot of what I've stated I've heard from recent speeches, audio tracks-a ll of which I'm most willing to share to those interested