A Ramadan Reader

Updated with new Thought for the Day - 7/8/11

Please find below a collected of assorted articles and talks from Sheikh Abdal Hakim about the blessed month we find ourselves in. Whilst extensive, this is by no means exhaustive and so if you have any suggestions for additions to the list please get in contact!

Also, please consider donating to the Cambridge Mosque is Moving Ramadan Brick by Brick appeal! Any help you can offer, no matter how modest, would be warmly and greatly appreciated. Details can be found here.

Talks and Lectures

Preparing for Ramadan - How to prepare ones body, mind and soul for Ramadan, this most welcome of guests.

'Abdal Hakim Murad - Ramadan' - A talk given in the last few days of Sha'ban, again about approaching Ramadan with ihsan.

Benefits of Fasting - A talk in the run up to Ramadan about the manifold benefits of fasting.

Restraint in an age of excess - This khutba outlines some of the tribulations afflicting the modern world that fasting - insha-Allah - can help lift.

'Fasting is Mine' - A lecture exploring the hadith qudsi in which Allah says 'Fasting is Mine'.

Charity - A khutba that discusses one of the very beneficial acts one can perform whilst fasting during this month.

'On Ramadan' - Delivered Aylesbury Mosque, UK November 1999

Eid-ul-Fitr - An Eid-ul-Fitr khutba given long ago, a treat to savour at the end of the month!

A Fairtrade Ramadan - From the Radical Middle Way

Articles

Ramadan in Turkey - A brilliant snapshot of the vibrant Ramadan experience in Istanbul

The Ramadan Travelogue 2010 - Last year the Sheikh treated us to a daily Ramadan Travelogue, some of them covering his thoughts whilst travelling in Turkey. Sparkling, rich and always relevant, we hope for more entries this year. Please return to the site regularly for more updates on this.

Thought for the Day transcripts

A collection of textual offerings from Aunty Beeb, some directly relevant, others tangentially so (audio here)

15 October 2004 - Retro-Ramadan

1 September 2008 - Annual Muslim Challenge Ramadan Day 1: Attack the Convolvuli

16 September 2009 - The Da Vinci Code and the Night of Power

23 September 2009 - The Hospitality of Eid
2 August 2011 - Ramadan Welcome!

12 January 2004 - Lust: a double edged sword

27 July 2007 - The Fundamentals of Fat

The image above is taken from inside Sultanahmet Mosque (the 'Blue Mosque'), Istanbul. Taken by the CKETC team.

Ramadan & Charity

Friday sermon (Jum'ah khutba) - Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - date unknown - 19 mins 45 secs

TRANSCRIPTION PENDING

In this sermon, Shaykh Abdal Hakim explains the importance of charity during Ramadan. May Allah bless us in this month, and make us grateful for the food we have when millions of people around the world are suffering. May He, Almighty and Exalted, in particular relieve the suffering of the flood victims in Pakistan - please remember the importance of sadaqah and donate to help them.

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Infinite & Finite

Talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - October 2007 - Cambridge - 33 mins 30 secs

Part of the beauty of Islam is its clarity and intelligibility: its fundamental creed is strikingly simple. Yet any expression within creation's finite limits of the Divine Infinite must necessarily result in some mysteries, hazy areas at the outer limit of what human language can express and human intellect comprehend. These have a different kind of beauty, and an important wisdom and lesson for us to appreciate. In this talk, Sheikh Abdal Hakim reflects on the meeting of the finite and the Infinite, in particular on the revelation of the Holy Qu'ran to the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him.

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'Fasting Is Mine'

Talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Peterborough - 22 August 2009 - 1hr 4 mins 40 secs

In this talk, Sheikh Abdal Hakim shares some thoughts on the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan. He focuses in particular on the famous hadith qudsi in which Allah says 'Fasting is mine'. May all of you out there have a blessed and uplifting month, and may your fasting be accepted inshaAllah. Please remember us here in Cambridge in your prayers, and keep circulating these talks to all your friends and encourage them to donate to the building of Cambridge mosque at this special time of year!


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Restraint in an Age of Excess

Friday sermon (jum'ah khutbah) by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 8 October 2004 - 26 mins 12 secs

In this sermon, the sheikh relates a sound hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that what he feared most for his community was the following of the uncontrolled urges of gluttony and lust. Although we often hear important warnings in sermons and elsewhere against the influence of the sad and tawdry modern culture of immodesty and sexual permissiveness, less attention is paid to the greedy and dysfunctional attitude toward food that the Western monoculture promotes. Yet not only is it a problem against which the the Blessed Prophet strongly warned us (peace be upon him), but one which is increasingly and obviously widespread among Muslims. The sheikh therefore reminds us of the importance of the prophetic virtue of restraint, which has so many important benefits, both spiritual and physical, and discusses how we can attempt to imitate it.

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Eid al-Fitr

Eid al-Fitr khutba by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - Eid al-Fitr 1427 (23 October 2006) - 27 mins 05 secs

Eid Mubarak to one and all. May God accept the fast and good deeds of all the Muslims during the past blessed month. No prizes for guessing the topic of the sermon in this post . . .

The sheikh mentions the hoped-for fruit of fasting: increased taqwa (God-consciousness), an awareness of our own fragility, dependence on God and need for guidance. Forcing ourselves to abstain from many of His Blessings helps us to appreciate them; but by a merciful paradox, it increases us in the one blessing that truly matters, which is iman (faith). Eid is above all a day of gratitude. Many who saw the last were taken back to God before the next; so we enjoy God's blessings freely again but also reflect on how they remind us about the essence of our existence. The message of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was rooted in this essence; and his own understanding and embodiment of it brought the fundamental sakina (inner peace) that radiated in his face and smile. The sheikh therefore describes Eid as at once a serious day but also one that encourages the inner peace upon which true happiness and celebration are founded.

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Fasting

Jum'ah khutba (Friday sermon) by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 13th October 2005 - 18 mins 50 secs

TRANSCRIPTION PENDING

With Ramadan swiftly approaching, it seemed appropriate to post this sermon on fasting. The sheikh reflects on the antiquity and ubiquity of fasting, which - in one form or another - has been and remains common to very many cultures and religions. But he reminds us that it is useless without the ethical core that directs toward a genuine change of one's inward state. Hunger is not just a reminder of solidarity with the less fortunate, but a good in itself in that it promotes an ongoing awareness of our dependence on God and His knowledge of all our actions. This, the sheikh explains, is why fasting is explicitly described in the Qu'ran as a means to attain taqwa (God-consciousness or awareness of God).

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