Infinite Ink

The first odd night of Ramadan

Tonight is the first odd night of Ramadan here. The interesting thing is, the institutes that teach Quran and Islamic Studies have holidays in Ramadan. Their instructors tell the students to lay off the Arabic studies and focus on their worship (ibadah) and recitation (dhikr) more. One thing I found interesting: one teacher said that dhikr is the fuel that keeps us going when we're trying to keep up with everything in life while improving our Islamic knowledge (ilm). Here's what she said, exactly (with meanings of her words after the quote):

"The person gets the noor of this ilm through mujahida. Imagine if you try to fly an aircraft without fuel. The aircraft is going to crash. This is what happens to us. When we try to acquire knowledge of the deen, also trying to keep our parents and family happy, all of a sudden we feel like we are crashing. You are not going to be able to do this mujahida if you do not do this zikr. If you don't give the fuel you need you are going to crash and everyone else on the aircraft is also going to crash with you. Zikr is the ruh of everything, it is the ruh of ibadat, the ruh of ilm, the ruh of khidmat."

Ilm=Islamic knowledge

Mujahida=effort

deen=Islamic way of life

zikr/dhikr=remembrance of Allah

ruh=soul

ibadat/ibadah=worship

khidmat=service

I hope you have/had a beneficial first odd night of Ramadan!