Ramadan

[davlat_dida]

Ya Ali Madad - Asalamualaykum!

Ramadan is tommorow, inshallah it will be great, I hope to keep the whole month. I also wish success to all brothers and sisters who are hoping to fast aswell.

May the Imam bless us.

[baqi]

Ya Ali Madad

I thought that fasting for the whole month of Ramadan wasn't compulsory for Ismailis? I'm married to a Sunni and am being forced to fast I hate it!!!

I thought that the whole point of the alamut was to spiriutally liberate us from exoteric-bound, sharia-obsessed pracitces such as compulsory fasting in Ramadan.

Isn't compulsory fasting for the whole month of Ramadan a Sunni and exoteric Twelver practice/misguidance? What is the Ismaili position?

[zubair_mahamood]

Ya Ali Madad

I thought that fasting for the whole month of Ramadan wasn't compulsory for Ismailis? I'm married to a Sunni and am being forced to fast I hate it!!!

I thought that the whole point of the alamut was to spiriutally liberate us from exoteric-bound, sharia-obsessed pracitces such as compulsory fasting in Ramadan.

Isn't compulsory fasting for the whole month of Ramadan a Sunni and exoteric Twelver practice/misguidance? What is the Ismaili position?

I think it’s not compulsory to Fast during Ramadan for Ismailies and it’s also not prohibited to fast during Ramadan. I am fasting…

Don’t know why your marriage with a Sunni girl forces u to fast…. I have many friends married to sunnies and they don’t fast or follow Islam…

Just search in forum you will find discussion on this topic

Zubair Mahamood

[nagib]

The topic comes back every year. Maybe it would be a good place to start reading all the posts exchanged last years.

Here is an extract from a FARMAN: [Usul e Din, published many time, I am reading from Bulleting published by Shia Imami Ismailia Association for Kenya in July 1972

The Farman was made by MOwlana Sultan Muhammad Shah in Dar es Salaam, 1899

"What is the difference between the Haqiqat and the Shariat? They are two different things altogether. One prefers the Book, the fast, the prayer; the other yearns for freedom. The two are world apart; they shall NEVER come together. How can the ignorant one ever be happy? He cannot grasp the Haqiqat; he does not want the Haqiqat....

Those who are steeped in the Shariat will never respond to My Farmans.

When I depart physically from you, you should not think that the Imam has left. Think of Hazar Imam as ever-present.. I am forever with you.

[aminamirali]

Its not like that almost all of my ismili friends and me do physical fast as well and i havent read any farman of MHI where is has prohibited the physical one but instead he has emphasized more on the spiritual one but it doesnot make sense that its not mandatory. If not the physical one is mandatory then why do we offer beej.

[star_munir]

Imam al-Baqir (A.S.) said that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to face the people and say: "O ye people, when the crescent of the month of Ramadhan shines, all devils will be chained, the doors of heaven will open, while the doors of hell will be closed; prayers will be answered... Then with the advent of the month of Shawwal , the believers will be told to count their rewards... These rewards, I swear by God, could not be compared with material rewards of money".



Yes, all these blessings are awarded by the blessing of the Holy Quran in the month of Ramadhan. But it is man who unties the devils by committing sins. It is he who opens the gates of Hell which Allah has closed.



The Prince of the Faithful Imam Ali (A.S) said: "I asked Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) what are the best deeds in the month of Ramadhan, and he (saw) answered: "The best deeds are to deter oneself from doing what Allah made unlawful" and he (saw) cried: I asked him what he was crying for and he explained:



"I am crying about what is going to happen to you in this month. I can almost visualize you praying to your God, when the most evil man in the history of mankind will stake you with his sword... The Prince of the Faithful then asked: "Would this ensure the safety and the wellbeing of my religion"



To this Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) answered: "Yes it would, but who ever kills you will be killing me, and who hates you hates me, and who offends you is offending me. You are to me, in the same position as myself. Your soul is my soul, and your body is my body."

[star_munir]

Its not like that almost all of my ismili friends and me do physical fast as well and i havent read any farman of MHI where is has prohibited the physical one but instead he has emphasized more on the spiritual one but it doesnot make sense that its not mandatory. If not the physical one is mandatory then why do we offer beej.

There had been good discussion on this topic previously. There is topic " The Concept of Eid in Ismailism" in current issues section you may go there.

[st0necol]

he (saw) cried: I asked him what he was crying for and he explained:



"I am crying about what is going to happen to you in this month. I can almost visualize you praying to your God, when the most evil man in the history of mankind will stake you with his sword... The Prince of the Faithful then asked: "Would this ensure the safety and the wellbeing of my religion"

Star_munir:

Please explain me this above line, I didnt get this.

When the most evil man in the history of mankind will stake you with his sword?

[star_munir]

Imam Ali (A.S.) said: "The bravest are those who gain victory over the false deity of their souls." (Safinatul-Bihar; vol.1, P.689).

Imam Ali (A.S.) asked the Prophet on the last Friday of the month of Shaaban : "What is the best thing to do in Ramadan?" The Prophet answered: "The best thing is to avoid committing sins." (Yun al-Akhbar ar-Ridha, vol.1).

[zubair_mahamood]

Ya Ali Madad

I thought that fasting for the whole month of Ramadan wasn't compulsory for Ismailis? I'm married to a Sunni and am being forced to fast I hate it!!!

I thought that the whole point of the alamut was to spiriutally liberate us from exoteric-bound, sharia-obsessed pracitces such as compulsory fasting in Ramadan.

Isn't compulsory fasting for the whole month of Ramadan a Sunni and exoteric Twelver practice/misguidance? What is the Ismaili position?

I think it’s not compulsory to Fast during Ramadan for Ismailies and it’s also not prohibited to fast during Ramadan. I am fasting…

Don’t know why your marriage with a Sunni girl forces u to fast…. I have many friends married to sunnies and they don’t fast or follow Islam…

Just search in forum you will find discussion on this topic

Zubair Mahamood

Well Brother, I give you some intelligence, and dispassionate information of the situation in the US.

If you have good health, and you fast, you only do yourself a favor. If you dont fast, you will be punished by your sins and not for your sins.

If you have bad health, then it is not compulsory. Perhaps, you may do some other exercise, or activity to PREPARE yourself to fast. I would say that logically and spiritually, it seems to me, that it would be acceptable to the almighty, as far as my reasoning guides me.

Now, I must say that services in Mosque are, say an Isha prayer, quite physically good exercise. The very full sajida sends blood up and down your system, and food up and down your intestines. Your health and digestion will improve. The fact that the mosques are far more and generally short distance from your home gives you more bang for the buck.

On the other hand, the Ahle Sunna are immersed in their particularisms. Majority of theirs are or appear to be undisciplined. They fall on food like
hungrily. I am giving hints. I dont want to spoil my mind by giving harsh
and too particular statements. The social manners are not very refined.

Look at the taraweeh prayers, 2x10 rakat and then 3 more witr.

So if you fast, you over-stress your system to find advance warnings
of health problems. you build resistance. I go to mosque and see all
the regular praying people like old but healthy bulls. I prefer this to
the exercise in gym since it really build endurance and good mentality.

But Jamat Khana is for deeper spiritual elevation. But you must also know
the meaning of various rituals. It is for building good habits. Discipline.
There are many benefits to those who can see, but I refrain from stating.
I prefer to drop hints as rationalizing and even stating is to end the thought and I prefer my thinking to be unlimited in pursuit of all it can potentially understand, as well as the right to refine (correct) my opinions.

So you can get the best out of both of them if you keep your eye on your
spiritual profit ... remember, mind, body and spirit are all interconnected.

I cant generalize but there are both pious Ismailis and non-Ismaili muslims as well as on the other end. Very hard to formulate a rule ... so difficult to correctly read people's mind.

I feel that your explanation questions the faith of billions of Muslim fasting in the holy month… on one hand you say “I don’t want to spoil my mind….” But I feel u mean to say v r right they are wrong…. Just tell me how can Prophet Muhammad explain fast wrong? How can Muslim fast in this month be wrong? I disagree with u....

I think we have right to say I m correct but not that they are wrong…

[swamidada]

Ramadan at Starbucks: How companies can profit by respecting religious diversity
Eboo Patel
Tue, June 15, 2021, 5:00 AM
“Thank God for Texas barbecue,” I said as I pulled into the parking lot. I lead an organization that works with colleges on matters related to religious diversity, and I was heading to Baylor University to give a keynote on interfaith cooperation. A friend had told me about a barbecue joint near its southeastern Texas campus, and I went over to eat before my speech.

But I started to reconsider as soon as I walked inside. Fox News was blaring from a television with a story about Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, and about a dozen white guys wearing overalls stared at me, a brown-skinned man, as I walked in.

At the food counter, the items were not labeled very well. I’m Muslim, and I don’t eat pork.

Living in Chicago, I usually tell servers about my religious restrictions. But feeling suspicious eyes on me, I decided that announcing my minority faith was not wise. So I went item by item, asking for ingredients. Now, I was holding up the line.

Then something happened. The server said, warmly: “Here are the four things you can eat.” She piled my plate with food that didn’t include pork.

I don’t know whether she knew I was Muslim, but she knew I was something different. And thanks to her hospitality, I got barbecue, her restaurant got $11.99 and she got a $10 tip.

It was a successful business transaction, which happened only because she was sensitive to my religious identity.

I think about this story a lot when I think about religion’s place in corporate America. In recent months, businesses have increasingly paid attention to racial and gender diversity. But religious diversity is still largely an afterthought – even though religious intolerance and faith-based hate crimes surged during the Trump presidency and show few signs of going away.

One 2020 analysis of Fortune 100 companies by the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation found that religion receives less attention than all other major identity categories, including race/ethnicity, women/gender and sexual orientation. And more than half of those companies make no mention of religion or faith on their diversity homepages.

Corporations are uniquely positioned to help curb religious intolerance because they can provide employees with the tools to navigate diversity, and accommodating religious differences among staff can also boost morale and retention.

Businesses also can tap into new markets by creating services that cater to the desires of different religious groups, boosting their bottom lines.

Nike executive saw Muslim women's need
Consider the case of Martha Moore, a vice president at Nike. When she went to the beach, she often noticed that Muslim women did not go in the water. Those who did wore swimsuits that looked heavy and uncomfortable. As a designer, she saw an opportunity. Why not figure out how to make swimwear for the hundreds of millions of Muslim women who want to go to swim in attire that adheres to the modesty standards of their religion, and is comfortable? She and her team at Nike went to work and designed precisely that. The swimwear line launched in late 2019, enabling Nike to access new customers clamoring for modest swimwear.

Nike isn’t alone. Last year in Malaysia, Starbucks recognized that because of the pandemic, many people could not visit family for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, marked by daily fasting from dawn to sunset. So the company created Ramadan Bazaar-inspired treats to make people feel at home.

Netflix, meanwhile, has churned out content that highlights different aspects of diverse religions such as an animated show about Hindu deities called “Ghee Happy.” Marvel recently cast its first on-screen Muslim superhero. And dating apps for people of different faiths have been around for a while – from Christian Mingle to JDate.

Internally, companies also are leading the charge to accommodate religious diversity. Tyson Foods has about 100 chaplains available to provide pastoral care to team members and their families, regardless of specific religious beliefs. Intel offers several employee resource groups dedicated to different faiths – including Christians, Jews, Muslims and, notably, agnostics and atheists.

Internal policies that encourage tolerance also help avoid public criticism and costly lawsuits. For example, in 2019, a Christian dishwasher at Conrad Miami Hotel won a $21.5 million lawsuit because the company didn’t accommodate her religious schedule. And in 2015, Abercrombie & Fitch lost a lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court because it refused to hire a prospective employee who wore a headscarf due to her religion.

There’s reason to believe that more companies will devote attention to faith going forward. For example, I recently spoke with Starbucks staff about religious diversity. After the talk, a manager said the discussion prompted her to think about her Muslim friends fasting during Ramadan, and how Starbucks could adjust their hours to open for them in the early morning.

This is promising, but there’s a long way to go. The United States is a religiously diverse country. It’s also a country rife with religious intolerance.

Corporate America can be a part of the solution – or it can sit on the sidelines and allow the problem to fester. The choice should be a simple one.

Eboo Patel is founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ra ... 37656.html

Eboo Patel is an Ismaili from Mumbai residing in Chicago.