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Islam, Modern Living

Exercise During Ramadan

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People, like myself, who try to get to the gym on a regular basis find themselves in a quandary during Ramadan.When do we exercise?How do we get to the gym?And when? During the day is inappropriate as we are fasting.In the evening there is iftar and salat al Tarawih.After that we are usually too exhausted and most people don’t feel good exercising that late at night. In that light I remember meeting a couple of people in Tunisia who were training for the Olympics.They did their training during Ramadan at midnight! Makes sense, but most of us are not willing to make that kind of sacrifice,

So what do we do? First of all, before we go further,let me highlight the two major risks of exercising while fasting-dehydration and hypoglycemia.For the first,we don’t want to sweat too much.If we do we will be losing not only water but also electrolytes so that is a no-no.As to the second,we don’t want to be burning calories off too quickly,since we are not taking any in.Hypoglycemia can be a serious problem.

So the program has to be light to moderate in intensity ,no more. Here are the elements of the program I am using.

1) A moderately brisk walk 15-20 minutes.Can be done anywhere,preferably not in extreme cold or directly under the sun

2) Chiqong.I use the program developed by Roger Jahnke of Nine Phases. 15 mins. approx although it can be stretched out by increasing the number of repetitions.Remember to always keep them an odd number..Usually does not cause a sweat but rather brings in energy-“chi” they call it.So, perfectly suited to Ramadan

3) sit-ups -two sets of 10-15:  5 mins.  and

4) Exercising of arms,chest and shoulders with resistance bands which can be purchased in any sporting goods store and are eminently portable

So there you have it-modest,cheap and doable.Should keep you in shape until your next visit to the gym in shawwal.And you can use it whenever you travel,anywhere.Tell me how it works for you.Salaams,Ibrahim

 

Islam, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Myths about Ramadan

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Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam, is indeed a great month- full of spiritual effort, patience, devotion and great rewards!The spiritual  atmosphere can be felt in the air as we start and reaches a peak in the last ten days.None of this is in doubt  in the present text..
However, due to the human need to idealize and to use what I call “black-and-white thinking” certain myths have crept into the community about what Ramadan can and can’t do-myths I would like to dispel here, in order for people to benefit properly from this holy practice.
1)Ramadan is easy:This idea is especially common in the Arab world but I have run into it in many communities.I have heard young Arab men saying”I just lead my life as I normally do without eating.I don’t notice the difference”. Really?! I would like to ask their bosses and especially their spouses lol The Pakistani Imams at our local mosques love saying, at day 15 for example,”Ramadan is now half-over and we hardly noticed it”. Are you kidding me?! I don’t know what world they are living in but I surely noticed it and more.And I noticed the many difficulties people were having with it around me -from people with high-stress jobs who couldn’t operate as efficiently as usual to those whose health problems were acting up to people who simply couldn’t do it for health reasons-physical and psychological!

Ramadan is not easy!If it were easy the Prophet saws would not have called it”The month of patience”. Patience is required for difficult things, not easy ones.When I first started doing Ramadan, after my conversion, I had trouble believing that a whole community had been ordered to do this practice .It seemed like an advanced ascetic practice designed for the most zealous of spiritual seekers.To the credit of the Muslim community,they take it on gracefully without complaints.

Despite their denial of the difficulty of the endeavour ,it shows in their behaviour, however..Visitors and non-Muslim workers in Muslim countries have told me about how the people around them became more irritable and impatient.This is actually just as common as the bad-breath, beloved of Allah, mentioned in the hadith.And there is nothing worse than denial.It just makes everything worse.Also,the benefit is hidden in the difficulty, n’est-ce pas?If it were “a piece of cake” as they say ,there would only be no benefit to it- just hypoglycemia as a consequence.

2) Ramadan is a health food fast.Wrong! The health fasts,per se,recommended by certain naturopathic professionals, invariably  involve lots of fluid intake- sometimes natural juices, other times distilled water fortified with electrolyes and nutrients.The Old Testament/Islamic fasts are exercises in abstinence-good for our spiritual development and probably our long-term emotional one as well(learning self-control) but difficult on our physical bodies and our psyches..

I can always remember the first Ramadan when I attended the Tarawih prayer in Montreal and the Imam fell down in the middle of the prayer,writhing in pain.We had to accompany him to the hospital where they diagnosed him with kidney stones.There was little doubt in my mind that it was due to or worsened at least by the dehydration of the fasting process.I did not know enough of his medical history to be able to establish whether he should have been fasting at all.For some people it is a too risky endeavour.

Over the years I have had to proscribe fasting for a number patients.They were not in good enough health to do it.In a few cases ,this was  due to intense depression or bipolar disorder.They were not getting better,in fact they were getting worse, and the medications were not working.In most cases ,the next year they were fine.Alhumdulillah.

A number of pious people I have met were not able to fast because of diabetes.And then there was the epileptic convert who I counselled to fast intermittently instead of every day but wouldn’t listen to sound medical advice.Because of that he had a grand-mal seizure in the mosque which triggered an intense ‘fitna'( conflict)in the mosque between those who considered it to be jinn and those who wanted to rush him to the E.R. to see a neurologist(I was obviously of the latter group).A fight ensued and the British police had to be brought in when one of the jinn believers pulled a knife!

So Ramadan is a health challenge.Consult with your own Muslim doctor to see if it is advisable for you,if you have a concern.

3)It is advisable to sleep as little as possible during Ramadan to increase the benefits.Another bit of bad advice.Some people may be able to do it but we should keep in mind that sleep-deprivation is another stressor. So if you are already “on the edge” it could put you over either into some unwanted psychological state like excessive anxiety or even psychosis or into some physical condition  like a re-currence of a previous medical condition or a worsening of an already existing one( like in the case of the previously mentioned epileptic) of even something new.

4) People will behave better because they are fasting and “the shayateen are chained up”. This one the ulema have dealt with in various ways since many have noticed considerable bad behaviour even during Ramadan.The bottom line here may be that even if the devils are chained up the nafs (human ego) is enough of a trouble-maker on its own and can raise its hoary head even when fasting-even without the promptings of the demons!

5) Ramadan is a good way to lose weight.Wrong!Some people do lose weight during Ramadan but most do not.I have participated twice in a successful Weight Watchers program .Ramadan was the only month in which I didn’t lose weight! The scientific evidence indicates that if you feed guinea pigs the same amount of calories in one dose as opposed to dividing it up in three(more or less the equivalent of what most fasters do during Ramadan lol) they get obese and sick! It is ,in terms of physical health, better to eat several small meals scattered throughout the day.I believe that is the scientific consensus and at times for certain conditions like hypoglycemia doctors prescribe that very formula.

All this being said,Ramadan is a great and holy month and we thank our Lord for His gift.We just need to be a little wiser about how we manage it it.Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Karim. Salaams,Ibrahim As -Sufi

Islam, Modern Living

The Phenomenology of Ramadan

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“Phenomenology” is a relatively new area of inquiry- often associated with such personalities as the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and Martin Heidegger(1889-1976).We will not even attempt to go into the the intricacies of their philosophical systems as this would fly in the face of my most profound conviction about the need for simplicity. I would prefer to sort out a chaotic garage or warehouse space(obviously of my own making lol) than to even attempt such an endeavour.

Nevertheless,I think these schools of thought do represent an important development in our own way of conceiving the world and more specifically the need for us to observe and reflect on our inner  experience.This need does not seem to be very present in traditional cultures including Islam where correct behaviour and correct beliefs seemed to suffice.So for most Muslims ,the fact that Allah ordained fasting in the Quran(2:183) and the Prophet saws told us of its benefits and the scholars have determined that the first ten days are for “Rahmat”(mercy) and the second ten are about” forgiveness from God” and the last ten give “freedom from the hellfires” is sufficient.

Being in the modern world, however, some of us, at least, feel the need to go deeper-into the inner experience and this is where phenomenology comes in.We need to look at the inner,experiential reality .

As I reflected on this( it may well have been an inspiration) I realized that an interesting parallel to Ramadan is the experience of pregnancy.The trigger for this thinking may well have been a difficult beginning to this year’s Ramadan and my recollections of the accounts of Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, and her difficult pregnancies being bed-ridden for months at the beginning of each of her pregnancies with overwhelming nausea.The details of her experience are not what is important here however,no more than the details of the philosophical systems of Husserl and Heidegger.What is interesting is that the three trimesters of pregnancy provide an interesting parallel to the three ten-day sections of Ramadan and I believe this can be helpful to us in understanding the process.

So, in Ramadan,the first ten days especially the early ones can be difficult for people.Just as women often experience nausea(morning-sickness) during the first trimester fasters will have a variety of symptoms as they take on the fast-headaches,dizziness,weakness,lack of concentration ,etc. Depending on the state of health of the practitioner this may last only a day or two or may continue for a longer period of time,for some intermittently throughout the month.

The second trimester of pregnancy usually is characterized by a subsidence of the ‘crisis mode’ ,less symptoms,a calmness and  a waiting.I would call this phase”paddling” and “incubation”. The baby is slowing growing and developing.The same is true in Ramadan.The worst is over.Now is the time of persistence and patience.

We all know where the third trimester of pregnancy leads! If we have had any contact with a woman going through it,we know they are literally “carrying a heavy load” ,exhausted,breathless at night and anticipating and fretting about the”apocalypse ‘to come.And then it is over.At this point the model breaks down somewhat as Ramadan is not as clearly defines in its finality.So for the last ten days  to be more accurate I would add in the model of the Shakespearian play which builds up to its climax(Lailat al Qadr) and its dénouement(the few days left after Lailat al Qadr. And the the Eid celebrations-in both cases.However for the woman, as opposed to the faster,the work has just begun!That is why Allah and his Prophet insist so strongly on the rights of the Mother!

I hope that helps you understand better the inner process of the month of fasting and makes it a more fulfilling and satisfying experience.I feel like it is helping me to think of it this way.And I can’t wait to see the baby at the end! Salaams,ibrahim

Modern Living, Psychology

Edumucation

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Texas school shooting. I’m going to have to start a column entitled “ things you’ll never hear from journalists” lol This is one of them! Maybe the real problem is “schools” The entire world including the place I am now visiting, Trinidad, is obsessed with formal, institutionalize schooling. But is this really such a good thing?! For one thing, many students don’t fit in. Either they don’t have the academic learning style required or they don’t have the social skills. So then they are humiliated, defeated and alienated. I suspect that many of young, mass killers fit into one of those categories .
But even in terms of education, these institutes are lacking. Most people tell me that they have to learn their jobs anyway when they get out of school. So is there any point? If you argue that schools produce open- minded, flexible intellects , I don’t see it, myself. They are in fact propaganda machines. I think we need to go back to the age-old master-apprentice formula if we want real education. But perhaps, that’s not what the powers find really wan! They want cogs in the machine. If that is it, they are succeeding well!

Comparative Religion, Islam, Spiritual Practice

Buddhism Re-examined

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The fatal flaw of Buddhism ,as opposed to the Western traditions,is its emphasis on Willfulness as opposed to Surrender. If you need a concrete representation of this difference , look at the most fundamental position in practice-sitting erect vs. the most important position in Islamic practice-sajda(prostration) or in Christianity-kneeling.

Now within the domain of willfulness, Buddhism has a lot to teach us about attaining higher states. However, within the domain of surrender, its concepts are woefully inadequate -especially in terms of where all phenomena originate from. What this may imply in terms of our position in the hereafter I will leave to God to decide. That being said, many of the Buddhist nde experiences including the iconic one of the Burmese monk who converted to Christianity, are negative in nature!

Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Sufi Retreat- Process and Cost Structure

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I have recently received the inspiration to do two 5-day Sufi retreats annually , one in Canada during the late summer/ early autumn and one in Tobago during the winter.To my way of thinking , this represents the natural complement to the weekly Wisal(dhikr) meetings and the elaboration of a daily spiritual practice routine( see articles on this blog re this subject). With all three in place one should have the spiritual infrastructure to make serious progress on our path to Allah.

So “What is a Sufi Retreat/ Happening”, you may ask. It is a period of time we hang-out together in a peaceful and preferably beautiful natural environment, doing our daily spiritual practices together and trying as best we can to connect with our Creator. It should be neither stressful with over-exertion nor slacking-off like a day at the beach( more on this later). Hopefully with the Generosity of God, something happens which shifts our consciousness and moves us to the next level spiritually. Let us all make dua( prayer) that this adventure brings us to satisfaction regardless of the nature of our experience.(In this light,even  so-called negative experience or non-experience can lead us to progress to the next level).

 

Many questions come up as we try to organize these retreats ,which is no simple matter, but one of the first is the issue of money. Unfortunately , we live in a society which is more than ever before  obsessed with financial issues. We are inundated everyday with slogans like ” the lowest price is the law”(Wrong!)  and “financial planning is the key to happiness and peace of mind” and endless ads telling us that they can save us money. Our society has developed pseudo-sciences like Business Administration, Marketing and Human Resources( what a disgusting term,-used to be called ‘Personnel ‘ but now they have taken the person out of the equation and left us with humans only as resources! Obviously  resources to generate more money. So the MBAs have encouraged cost- cutting, “rationnalizing” serviices and productivity quotients all to maximize the”bottom line” . Yup, it lines up well with the rest of the junk in the bottom.All of this ends up generating more stress and misery for human beings.

Given this obsesion with money, the first thing people want to know about an activity is the price.Sad, really. The real question should be”What is the price of  missing this opportunity?” lol in fact, this could have important consequences for peoples after- life so it is priceless, Now I could have designed this seminar for a lower price.(Please note that I am making no money on this initiative. In fact if it is anything like any of my other spiritual initiatives, I will lose money once again.)

Now,most authentic spiritual teachers don’t like talking about money as they find it base and vulgar. Outside of teaching people not to be tight- fisted(‘bughul’ in Arabic) but rather to give in charity.As well we are taught  not to be extravagant . However ,money issues are considerably more complicated than that in the modern world.

Ok.Back to the issue at hand. This spiritual retreat is designed to provide the most favorable conditions possible to arrive at mystical experience(‘hal’) and to have openings( ‘futuhat’). Admittedly,any results one obtains come from the Rahmat( Mercy) and Generosity of Allah.However, it is incumbent on us to make every effort possible to make these experiences possible.One of the ingredients  of these ideal conditions is to be in a beautiful,natural environment  with as few distractions as possible. I believe the Gaia Wellness Retreat Center fulfills those criteria more than amply. The other condition is to eliminate stress as much as possible. This will be adressed shortly.

So we come back to the money issue. If I had wished we could have perhaps held the seminar for half the cost! But then the participants would have been obliged to do all the work of organizing the space,making the food,collecting the fees, etc.,etc.Instead,the way it is now organized we will have a partner in the Gaia Wellness Retreat Center who will be helping us with the work. That is their mission,by the way.The seminars I have attended where the students themselves did all the work, I have found to be very stressful!And stress kills the serenity needed for spiritual experience as “fire burns wood” to quote a well- known hadith about envy.

Another concern in this retreat format is the best length of time. I, myself, have done 3-day retreats( one memorable one with Sheikh Nuh) , 7-day retreats, 21  – day and even fourty days a long time ago. Sheikh Nazim did 6- month retreats with his Sheikh and the Mindfulness movement favours a 10-day formula. At this point I pam going on intuition but the length of time may have to be altered in the light of experience.

The other issue is intensity . Now we hear of retreats like that of Grandsheikh Abdullah Daghestani where the formula of ‘laillaha ilala’ was recited 99,000 times er day with fasting being broken by a glass of tea and seven olives and restarted again. We could call that hard-core lol.The opposite format could be the five prayers and lying on the beach the rest of the time lol.Somewhere in between we need to find the right intensity. Personally I have found that exaggerating the intensity does not work well.During the fourty – day retreat I pushed myself to the verge of psychosis and have no desire to revisit that place. Nor is slacking- off an option. So the true middle way is our goal.

By now the concrete amongst you is probably asking:”So what is the price”?It will be $300 plus tax for the seminar and between $225-$425 plus tax for the accomodations.I hope you can see your way to putting aside that amount for your spiritual upliftment. I don’t think you will regret it but if you do ,you will have to refer it back to your Lord as their will be no refunds for unsatisfied customers lol.

  • Salaams and Looking forward to seeing you there,IbrahimKreps

 

 

Modern Living, Psychology

Conscious Choice

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As I travel around the world, and I have done a significant amount of that in my lifetime,I realize that no matter where I am there is one constant. People, in general, do not make conscious choices in their lives. They are rather buffeted around by the surrounding social consensus, by financial needs and intercurring problems of whatever sort. In the Yogic schema we can say they are living in the first two chakras: chakra one of ‘survival’and chakra two of ‘pleasure’. Rarely do they ascend higher unless external forces propel them otherwise. This is very frustrating for people like myself who need others to make precisely those choices in order to make our interactions fruitful. Since I am not a Prophet and have no obvious miracles to shock people out of their complacency, my patience gets constantly tested. 🙁I guess that is my destiny lol

Comparative Religion, Islam, Sufism

The ‘wali’(saint) and the ‘arif’(knower of the Absolute)

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Let me restate this in terms you may be able to relate to, Jafer. It took me a long time to figure this one out but I was determined to make sense of everything I was seeing and hearing,! You can be a ‘wali’ of Allah( a saint) without being an ‘arif’( knower of Allah experientially). The contrary is also true shocking as it may seem to the ordinary Muslim. You can be an arif without being a saint! It’s part of the mystery of existence!?In Hindu/ Buddhist terms, you can be bothnEnlightened(arif) and corrupt. The History of gurus on America is full of such cases.As real Sufi aspirants , we are aiming to be both. In Vedantists terms, we want to be complete on both the dual and the non-dual planes. In Islamic terms, we walk on two legs- the leg of haqiqat( Ansolute Truth) and the leg of Shariah( the Divine rules )  . That was one of the very first teachings I received on the Shadhuli way and it will be my goal to the very end, inshallah,Salaams, Ibrahim

Modern Living, Psychology

The Marriage Contract

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As I reflect on this question, I realize that I was raised on the Hollywood version of marriage. “ Love and Marriage , go together like a horse and carriage” isn’t that the way the song goes?But what if the hitch between the horse and carriage is broken or the horse is ailing or the carriage was made with inferior steel from China lol? The bond might easily break.

The second pillar of my view of marriage was the humanism I learnt while studying psychology. So from there one adds in ‘tolerance of differences’ and ‘communication’. Now the package is complete . That was the paradigm I was working with.

Now, after three unsuccessful marriages including a recent debacle and one mostly successful one that lasted 24 years, I have to seriously question whether my model is adequate. Not too many  schools would accept a 25% success rate, n’est-ce pas!?

When I first came into Islam, I was introduced to another model of marriage. Instead of a romantic arrangement , it was defined as a contractual one. And over time I have come to see the wisdom of this approach. I understand ,as well, the pitfalls of this approach especially in modern times where families may ask for two many conditions especially monetary ones which become burdensome and unrealistic. For example, in Jordan where I did s sabbatical year, the fathers were often requiring $25, 000 US as dowry plus an owned appartment and a good job. Most young Jordanian men did not have such resources so many young women remained unmarried!

These excesses aside, the idea of setting out the terms of a marital arrangement before it is officialized appears to me to make more and more sense. Obviously one cannot foresee all the possible developments long-term in a marriage but some issues are foreseeable right from the onset. A few examples: If the man is Muslim and the wife is Christian, how are the children to be educated? Does the wife agree that all meat that enters the house will be halal?If the wife comes from a wealthy family and the husband has a simple middle-class job, she needs to agree from the outset that she will not have the same life-style that she had previously. If the wife is a Sufi practitioner and the husband is more of a standard Sunni or much worse a Wahhabi( in that case I wouldn’t recommend marriage at all lol) then he has to agree to accept her practice and not harass her about her beliefs or practices. Another issue that will frequently come up is the care of children. If the wife is insistent on continuing her career as soon as possible and the husband feels strongly that the mother should stay home for the first years of a child’s life, this should be dealt with quickly as the possibility of future conflict on this very issue remains and can lead to serious conflict and disruption in the family

As you can see the possibilities for such conflicts is very specific to each couple. I am sure that the reader can think of many other possibilities. Whatever is foreseeable should be addressed and included in the written contract whenever possible.

Now, does this solve all potential difficulties? By no means. However, it appears to me , at least, that this gives the players involved the best chance of success. I sincerely wish I would have understood this earlier!

Understood and applied, any one of the posts on this site could change your life-forever!