happy 2008

" Happy 2008 "

2007 will be gone soon, 2008 is just around the corner. It feels like a tiring year for me juggling both work and school. At one point, it was full of anxiety but it has also been a landmark year for my spiritual journey. The passing of my beloved mom during the month of Ramadan made me feel the fragility of life and missing her very much. I'm awaiting for Muharram before I pause and reflect upon my life and the meaning of 'Awal Muharram' so we may learn from this seminal event of our faith – the Hijrah. Thats the correct way for us Muslims to regard 'Awal Muharram' as our new year and not the New Year. Gone were the wild new year parties for me, I much prefer to be with the less fortunate. To my Muslim readers in Malaysia and elsewhere, may the Blessings and Benevolence of Allah be upon you and yours.

The Prophet’s Hijrah (migration) from Mecca to Medinah on 622 CE was such a pivotal moment in Islamic history that Caliph Omar decided that the Muslim calendar, and hence 'Awal Muharram', should begin on that day. Historically, the migration actually took place during the third month.

'Awal Muharram' is not so much celebrated as observed. On this day, Muslims pause and reflect on that signal event in our history, and ponder its meaning and significance.

Hijrah means to move away from oppression, a bad place or situation. The symbolism of the new moon is particularly apt, the emergence from total darkness to ever increasing brightness under the soft luminescence of the moonlight.

Allah commands us not to accept the evil around or perpetrated upon us. In Surah Al Nisaa (4:97 – Women) (approximate translation), “When the Angels take the souls of those who die in sin, they [Angels] say, ‘In what plight were ye?’ They [sinners] replied, ‘Weak and oppressed we were on earth.’ They [Angels] say, ‘Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourself away from evil?’ Such persons will find their abode in Hell – What an evil refuge!”

The Prophet’s physical Hijrah is well known. Less well appreciated is his non-physical hijrah, when he moved his people away from the Age of Jahilliyah (Ignorance) with his divine messages. His physical Hijrah was a matter of days; his other hijrah consumed his total life after he received that first revelation.