{"id":2290,"date":"2014-08-27T09:48:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T13:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2290"},"modified":"2014-08-27T09:48:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T13:48:39","slug":"post-ramadan-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/08\/post-ramadan-reflections.html","title":{"rendered":"Post-Ramadan reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Surah<\/a>
Surah Ar-Ra’d, verse 28: Verily in the remembrance of Allah does the heart find consolation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome back, readers \ud83d\ude42 My apologies for being so AWOL from blogging. This past Ramadan I had genuinely been able to ramp up my ibadat<\/em> and one of the ways I achieved that was by letting go of digital distractions. A month later, the spiritual boost appears to have faded enough that I am reverting back to my old habits \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This Ramadan was incredibly insightful for me. Some of the things I did fervent dua<\/em> for actually came to pass, which reinforces my faith in a tangible way. I felt like Allah was listening, I truly had a connection to the divine by such immersion in the rhythms of Ramadan to the exclusion of all else. It helped that I currently have the career flexibility for such immersion; the last week I basically did nothing but pray, sleep, and attend masjid. Were I working a 9-5 job like most people, that would not have been possible. I don’t think that such immersion is necessary for a meaningful spiritual experience, but I do think that when our lives here in Dunya offer us an opportunity, we should take it. <\/p>\n

However, despite praying two juz<\/em> of Qur’an a day during Ramadan, I’ve only completed 2 since it ended. This is a serious failing and self-disappointment. I also have not undertaken the effort yet to ramp up Qur’an with my daughter, who has made amazing progress when I am consistent. I am resolving today to at least be consistent for her, and then also for myself. The Qur’an tells us that by reciting, the heart finds consolation from its torments<\/a> – and by allowing the Qur’an’s presence in my routine t lapse, I am feeling the lack of that consolation and greater impact from those torments. So I must resolve to re-learn the lesson of Ramadan. <\/p>\n

It is nice to eat lunch again, though \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back, readers \ud83d\ude42 My apologies for being so AWOL from blogging. This past Ramadan I had genuinely been able to ramp up my ibadat and one of the ways I achieved that was by letting go of digital distractions. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2291,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions\/2291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}