The Sufis of India were great patrons of learning. Some of them were outstanding men of letters themselves. Their belief was that it was impossible to know God without knowledge, and also that ‘an ignorant Sufi is the devil’s plaything’. There are instances when they refused to admit in their folds votaries of striking promise and aptitude until they had completed their education. In future posts on this blog it would be shown in sufficient detail that how the remarkable educational and literary progress of India under the Muslims was due, directly or indirectly, to the encouragement given by the Sufi divines.

The two of the greatest scholars and teachers of the 14th century, Qazi Abdul Muqtadir Kindi and Sheikh Ahmad Thanesari were the spiritual proteges of Khwaja Naseeruddin Chiragh-i-Dehli. The renowned 17th century educationist and teacher, Maulana Lutfullah of Kora Jahanabad was a Sufi saint of the Chishtiya Order and through his pupils, and pupils of his pupils, educational activity was kept going till the 19th century, . More often than not, the Khanqah (Spritual Seminary) and the Madrassa (Islamic Religious Education Institution) formed the natural complements to each other. The Khanqah-i-Rasheediya of Jaunpur, the Madrassa of Shah Pir Mohammad at Lucknow, the seminary of Shah Waliullah at Delhi and the Khanqah of Maulana Rasheed Ahmad at Gangoh were the best examples of it.

Ramadan is the month of fasting in which Muslims all over the world participate. It is obligatory for Muslims to fast except children, sick, old, or the women who are in the menstruation cycle. Women on their menstruation cycle are exempt from fasting and praying also unable to join in the major religious practices of the holy month. Women can make up the fasting days that they missed after Ramadan.

Menstruation and other uniquely feminine concerns are all part of Allah’s creation, which He created in perfect wisdom. Menstruation is not a punishment for women they are just part of the special package of blessings, opportunities and challenges that Allah Almighty has given uniquely to women. Allah (SWT) has commanded menstruating women to refrain from the ritual prayer and ritual fasting. Allah Almighty says in the Noble Quran: “And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger and fears Allah and is conscious of Him – it is those who are the attainers.” (Quran, 24:52)

Many women, when their periods begin, find that their level of engagement with the high spiritual atmosphere of the holy month Ramadan drops. If menstruating women fulfil this command with the intention to submit to Allah’s order, then they are actually worshipping Allah the entire time they refrain from the ritual prayer and fasting for the sake of fulfilling Allah’s command.

Worship in Ramadan for Menstruating Women

Women can take full advantage of the blessed month of Ramadan with menstruation cycle they can do more than refraining from ritual prayer and fasting to draw near Allah Almighty. Below mentioned are some ways that women unable to fast can boost their spirituality during the blessed month of Ramadan.

• Increase Dhikr, those who are in periods should use every free moment in remembering Allah Almighty. Dhikr has a special way of touching the heart, and by invoking Allah’s names whenever you can during this blessed month you create the space for beautiful spiritual openings.
• Listen to the Holy Quran. Those who can’t recite the Quran due to periods can listen to the Quran as much as possible. “The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong).” (Quran, 2:185)
• Increase your repentance in the holy month of Ramadan. Use moments when others are praying or breaking their fast to ask Allah Almighty to forgive you and your loved ones and to keep you from returning to sin. Allah (SWT) is the Forgiving, Merciful and trust that the moment when someone asks for forgiveness they are truly forgiven.
• Feed people who are in fasting.
• Make Dua for others, for yourself and for the whole Muslim Ummah.
• Be kind to others, including your spouse & family members.
• Send blessings on the Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
• Give charity generously.
• Try to carry out righteous deeds.
• Babysit to help mothers to worship.
• Gain Islamic knowledge so that you can do good deeds and earn blessings from this blessed month.

Ramadan is not simply about abstaining from food, praying, and fasting, but it is truly about purifying your heart and your deeds leaving things that Allah Almighty dislikes and doing more of the things that Allah (SWT) loves with no intention other than to please Him. May Almighty Allah accept our prayers, fasting and good deeds. Ameen!

Microburst

Threat to aviation.

Imam Ghazali (rah) explains in the following passage the spiritual impossibility of adequately overseeing our ‘self’ by oneself alone:

“The words khalq (creation) and khulq (morality) are derived from the same root. One is about the external world and the other is about the internal world.

Khalq is the form that can be known by the senses.

Khulq is hidden and cannot be known by looking at our external existence. The real identity of a person rests in his character, way of life, and his nature. Regardless of how much one hides himself in outer appearances, one day his inner identity will be disclosed.”

As we need a mirror to see our outer appearance, so too we need a mirror for our heart: the help of a friend of Allah who will diagnose and cure our inner world, our character, and our inclinations.

If one wishes to know whether he is someone loved by Allah or not, he should closely evaluate his inner world: to the extent, he feels Allah in his heart and witnesses his power and kingdom with amazement he is close to Him.

For philosophers of the ancient and medieval worlds, including the medieval Islamic world, natural philosophy included a wide range of disciplines we nowadays would be inclined to keep apart. The most fundamental part of Aristotelian natural philosophy was “physics” (from Greek physis, nature), the study of things subject to motion and change. But natural philosophy also studied all the various types of natural objects: the elements, the heavens, animals, and humans themselves. Thus natural philosophy was a large and varied terrain, stretching from psychology to cosmology, from mineralogy to medicine, from the study of plants to the study of the stars.

Figure 2: Depiction of Al-Kindi on an Iraqi stamp issued in 1962. (Source).

The main questions to be studied in the Project will be:

(1) How was natural philosophy understood to be a single branch of science, given its diversity?

(2) As a special case which sheds light on this larger issue, what was the relation between philosophy and medicine?

(3) How did Greek ideas about natural philosophy penetrate into the Islamic world?

(4) What alternatives were there to the mainstream Aristotelian approach to natural philosophy?

Figure 3: Introductory pages of the manuscript of Ilahiyat Aristutalis (Theology of Aristotle), the work of Plotinus in Arabic translation that was edited by Al-Kindi (Naskh script, 398 pages). (Source).

As part of the project, Professor Adamson has launched a podcast covering the history of philosophy, “without any gaps.” This will in due course cover Islamic philosophy, though as it is chronological the first two years or so will deal with ancient philosophy.

Figure 4: An old drawing of Avicenna from a manuscript dated from 1271 CE. (Source).

Further resources

1. Works by Professor Peter Adamson

• The Arabic Plotinus: a Philosophical Study of the ‘Theology of Aristotle’ (London: Duckworth, 2002).
• Great Medieval Thinkers: al-Kindi (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
• (Co-editor) of The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, with Richard Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
• Philosophy, Science and Exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin Commentaries (London: Institute for Classical Studies in 2004).

Figure 5: Statue of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) honouring him in his home town, Córdoba, Spain. (Source).