Asma LAMRABET

This Ramadan in time of global pandemic is an exceptional occasion to rethink some traditions and find new approaches for our understanding of fasting…It can be a beautiful time to live this spiritual month as it should be: I mean in simplicity, sobriety, with a kind of detachment from all materialisms and as a spiritual retreat as the prophet did it alone in the deep silent in the mount of Hiraa. I think that trough this World pandemic Allah is showing us His ayat in the Cosmos and in within ourselves as He said : “sanurihim ayatina fi alafak wa fi anfussihum hata yatabayana lahumanahu al haq… We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. In Sourate Fuslilat”

So maybe we should try to have a deep reflection (tadabur) on our modern way of life and ecological world because it’s our first responsibility as khalifa. Our mission as men and women is to take care about the creation of God, this is the meaning of khilafa and amana. And at this special time of pandemic crisis we all know that we have failed in this mission as Muslim and as Human. We have not be able to read God’s Ayat in the sky, hearth (samayate wa elard) , mountains, in our relationship with animals, nature and with all God’ Creation (khalq Allah).     

So it is time to return or to reconnect to what is essential in our life and our relationship with God and its creation. This crisis is maybe a special reminding from God as a transcendental sign which challenges us about our excesses, our failings and our egocentrism and arrogance towards nature, earth and so on… Because according to the Qur’an breaking the harmony of creation is an act of corruption (fasad/ aladhin yufsidun fi alrd) and we must recognize that we have done such fasad breaking this natural balance of our planet.  Unfortunately all this cosmic and ecologic vision of the Qur’an is absent in most of our Islamic discourse and concerns today. We have reduced Islam from it’s cosmic and ethical vision to a strictly rigorist and legalist religion. 

We need also to recognize that we forgot the human dimension of the Qur’anic message. This crisis is maybe an opportunity to return or to highlight this important message of the human solidarity and a shared humanity (almushtarak alinsany) in the Qur’an. Because this pandemic shows us that the virus is attacking all the humanity without religious or ethnical distinctions…and the Qur’an is a beautiful ethical recalling us about our common humanity despite our diversity…

 Asma Lamrabet Mai 2020