First Ramadan Blog for 2009
It has been a long time since I wrote something on my Blog. With the beginning of Ramadan this year (2009), I hope that I can pick up some trends and share them on the Net. Actually, I plan to change my approach in this BLOG and speak about Ramadan in a few pieces.
The first of Ramadan started without a glitch this year. And as far as I know, many Muslims in South Africa headed for night prayer (isha) on Friday night. Twenty-second of August (2009) was the first day of fasting.
The mosques in District Six (Cape Town) were full on the first night, looking very much like a Friday afternoon. Cars were double-parked along the main roads, forcing drivers going to other mosques or elsewhere to weave through with care and probably also frustration. Car guards got an extra bonus, and the District was abuzz. Charity organizations took full advantage of this good will.
As usual in Ramadan, there were extra prayers to be said after the night prayer. These prayers are called tarawih, meaning periods of rest. The prayers are not named by what one does, but by the breaks that one takes in between!
If you think that this strange, you will surprised to know that the naming is not strange as far as the practice of tarawih is concerned. There are many, mostly young but also some old, who spend a lot time lounging about. They really take the idea of rest seriously. But others take an opposite approach. The tarawih prayers are for them a source of exercise. Performing a total of twenty bowings, forty prostrations, and standing and sitting in between can be strenuous for those who hold desk jobs, and avoid gym or the beautiful walks on offer in and around the city of Cape Town.
The periods of rests in most mosques are kept to a minimum. Most people would like to get the prayer done as soon as possible. Judging from the number of cars at different mosques, one can predict with a fair amount of accuracy which mosques deliver in the shortest time. There is a good chance you might get to these mosques as they people were leaving.
But we must not forget the faithful who show remarkable spirit. They spend between 1 and 2 hours in the mosques, every night, for 29 nights in a row! Nothing to scoff at.
The night prayer is, as I said, a place for reciting the Qur'an. The usual idea is to read a portion and complete the full recitation over the month. Many mosques in Cape Town read much less; while mosques in Gauteng compensate in excess. In the latter, small towns and suburbs will break a mosque congregation into 3,4, 5 groups, each completing the Quran in the month.
I am always fascinated by the first day's recitation. It was marked by a diversity and breadth of meaning, but the central message that I usually get from the reading was always the same. And there was no exception this month:
- There is no guaranteed path to paradise and salvation.
- No group can claim that they have exclusive rights to the special favour of God.
And this critical voice takes many forms:
- the special favour of God can be taken away
- there is a possibility of distorting the truth even though one has it
- claims and counter-claims to exclusive salvations are merely claims, and
- the spirit of the law is more important than the letter.
I hope, however, that my list conveys the idea of a critical stance to guaranteed salvation: Say, to God belongs the east and the west; they sacrificed but hardly did it; the baptism of God; who is better to baptise than God.
These verses underline a degree of self-criticism that is absolutely important for virtue. The feeling that one is absolutely correct, without a hint of self-reflection, cannot be sustained as the most ethical position. One may indeed quote scripture, claim special membership in a group. Such claims were laid waste by self-reflexive doubt.
Perchance, there is something here for thinking about.
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