Question:

Salamalaykum,

I met my wife 10 years ago and I met Maulana Sheikh Nazim 5 years ago.
Every Ramadan for the last few years, I have many memories of my wife in the earlier years of knowing her. I miss her ‘spirit’, confidence, good looks, easy-going nature, bubbly, happy, sociable personality,etc that she had back then.
Before 5years ago she started loosing these qualities and after converting she suffered from bad thoughts, tension, paleness, no drive, no friends and really lost her beauty which she had in abundance before. So every Ramadan all the nice memories from before come back. I fasted earlier this year but didnt think back to the past -it just seems to happen in Ramadan.

Is this normal? This year, im not so attached to the memories -its not really a distraction this year, so thats an improvement, but it still happens. Any idea why?

Answer:

wa `alaykum salam,

Actually that is good, because as an annual season, Ramadan is a good time to make muhasaba, self-accounting and review our accomplishments, and more importantly as Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani advises, review our failures, especially in the spiritual dimension. That is because self-praise is a blameworthy attribute in spirituality but accounting for one’s mistakes and making tawba, repentance is recommended.

However, Shaytan, as usual, may try to interfere, and instead of reflecting on spiritual aspects, make us focus more on the superficial. That is when it is good to repel his insinuations by reciting at-Ta`awwudh (a`udhu billah mina ‘sh-shaytani ‘r-rajeem) and the Basmala (Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem).

Taher Siddiqui

Question:

assalamualaikum,
when good time for my practice Daily Awrad.

Answer:

wa` alaykum salam,

I remember when my brother Shaykh Adnan and I were young, Grandshaykh told us to do our awrad between `Asr and Maghrib, Maghrib and `Isha’ and early morning until ishraq, from half-an-hour or one-hour before Fajr until ishraq, and he said “make a seclusion.” He told us to cover ourselves with a bed sheet. When you cover yourself you know you are in limitation; this is your dunya grave. You cannot come out before you finish your awrad. We cover as if secluding, disconnecting ourselves from normal life, within that square or rectangle. You cannot move right or left while you are doing your awrad. So the connection to your shaykh when you are doing your awrad, he will take you to the presence of Prophet (s), and from the presence of Prophet he takes you to the presence of Allah (swt).

You sit inside the blanket.  If it is hot, use a sheet, because shaytan tells you, “You are hot, take it off.”  In any worship he comes to tell you a way to stop it.  I used to do it in a loud voice – you can do it in a loud voice or khafi, silently, but when you do it loud you are able to stop the gossips from coming in, because you are meditating on what you are reciting.

By covering yourself it is as if you are secluding yourself completely from the outside world.  You feel that pleasure there, day after day.  That key is one of the keys we need on our journey.

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

[excerpts from Who Are the Guides, and a suhbat dated 17th November, 2007]