Ramadan Reflections: Insights from Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, a leading and renowned scholar of South Africa, provides scholarly insights and spiritual reflections through essays on how to make the most of Ramadan.
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The Greatness of Ramadan
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شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِّنَ الْهُدَىٰ وَالْفُرْقَانِ ۚ
Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed as a guidance for humanity, as a clear proof of that guidance, and as a criterion for distinguishing between right and wrong. [2: 185]
Celebrating Revelation
In as much as celebrating the Prophet’s birthday can be read as a celebration of the greatness of the Prophet (saw) in his aspect of the perfect man (al-Insan al-Kamil), and in as much as Yaum Ashura (the 10th of Muharram) can be read as a celebration of the saving of the Prophet Musa (Allah’s peace be upon him) from the tyrannical pharaonic oppressors; similarly Ramadan can be read as a celebration of the revelation of the Quran during this month. It stands as living proof of the divinity of Allah, as living proof of the authenticity of the prophethood of Muhammad, and as living proof of the supremacy of revelation over all else.
Living by Guidance
But the Quran is also a Huda (guidance). And as Huda – as true guidance – it teaches us how to live our lives as complete human beings. It teaches us how to live with respect, dignity, honor, and love. It further teaches us that Allah is a divinity that embraces the concerns of all humanity.
The Role of Fasting
It is also important to remember that the guidance and concerns of Allah are not limited to mere theoretical or idealistic utterances. The guidance of Allah plunges us into the mainstream of our earthly existence. One of the ways in which Allah has done this is by making the fast obligatory upon all of us.
A Call to Reflection
Not only are we required to sympathize with the poor and the hungry, but we are thrown into the very experience of hunger.
Not only are we required to reflect upon our condition in a society with its mores, customs, habits, rules, and general routine – which looms far greater than the sum of its individuals – but it forces us to reflect upon the very nature of that society. Becoming a cog in the political, economic, social, and industrial machine is easy. In short, it means becoming spiritually forgetful in ordinary life’s material and mechanical processes.
Fasting forces us to break this forgetfulness and anchor the consciousness of truth and spirituality in every domain of our existence, i.e., to act upon the truth of Islam and live by its spirituality.
Understanding Taqwa
Fasting, by depriving us of the daily luxuries and niceties of our mundane existence, asserts the supremacy of our essential condition as beings endowed with a soul (ruh) over our condition as material and temporal beings. Fasting, therefore, at once draws us into the bosom of Allah and allows us to reflect upon the high moral, social, and spiritual values that Islam sets for us. In other words, fasting focuses our attention on the broader meaning of Taqwa (a heightened consciousness of Allah) as expressed in the following verse:
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يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe fasting has been prescribed upon you as it has been prescribed upon those before you so that you may learn Taqwa. [2: 183]
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The Arabic of the phrase in the above verse “so that you may learn Taqwa” reads as “l’allakum tattaqun”. The term “taqwa” has been variously translated in its narrower meaning as fear, piety, self-restraint, and guarding against evil. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the term is required to do justice to its meaning and better understand the link between the Quran as Huda (true guidance) and Taqwa as one of the most desired virtues. That understanding depends on our understanding of the nature of man and woman.
The Islamic perspective is that we, as people, are composed of both body and soul or matter and spirit. We are also considered to be both the vicegerents of Allah on earth and His bondsmen. As vicegerents, we are commanded to perfect our earthly existence, whether in our private, domestic, social, economic, or political lives. As bondsmen of Allah, we are ordered to perfect our spiritual existence. Taqwa circumscribes both of these conditions. In other words, as alluded to earlier, it means to observe our duty towards Allah in all our social and communal relations (towards Muslims and non-Muslims alike) and our spiritual relations towards Allah Himself. This is a difficult task, and one of the means that Allah has given us to attain this level is Ramadan. But, typical of Quranic “pragmatism,” there are no false promises. In Arabic, the emphasis is quite clearly on the phrase “l’allakum” (“so that you may” or “perhaps”). The means to Taqwa have been placed at our disposal through the great institution of fasting. It is up to us to use, misuse, or even ignore the means. This condition is encapsulated in the following Prophetic saying:
“For those who do not refrain from lying or acting on such lies, Allah does not need their abandoning their food and drink” [Bukhari].
Disciplining the Will
Taqwa can further be realized through three opportunities provided for us by the fast:
1. The disciplining of the will (tarbiyat ul-Iradah)
2. The purification of the self (tazkiyat un-Nafs)
3. The purification of the soul (tasfiyat ur-Ruh)
The potential of fasting, particularly Ramadan, in making these opportunities available cannot be denied.
About the disciplining of the will, the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
“For everything, there is a purification, and the purification of the body is too fast, and fasting is half of the endurance.” [Ibn Majah].
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Purifying the Self
All acts of endurance are naturally a function of the will’s strength (or otherwise). If the will is strong, endurance is strong; if weak, then endurance is weak. One of the primary aims of Sabr – as an act of will – is to bring the will of the human being in harmony with the Will of Allah. This is essential if we wish to be acknowledged as true ‘ibad (servants) of Allah.
As for purification of the self (nafs) – here understood as the egotistic self – the following Prophetic saying is a clear reference to the fact that fasting is intended as a conduit for such purification:
“If any of you fasts, then do not speak obscenely nor act obscenely. If anyone picks a fight with him or insults him, then let him say ‘I am one who fasts, I am one who fasts.’” [Bukhari and Muslim].
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Here, the outer manifestations of the nafs, viz. that of obscene speech (rafath) and obscene behaviour (jahal), are addressed to bring under control, and hence purifying, the inner self.
On the other hand, the purification of the soul is contingent on the extent to which it is absolved from all sin. The Prophetic saying: “Those who fast with absolute faith and absolute contentment will have all their previous sins absolved” [Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmdhi, Nasai], may be read as a definite promise to the effect that the absolution of one’s sins is guaranteed if the two ostensibly simple conditions of fasting with total faith and total contentment are met.
These three processes are intrinsic to cultivating genuine Taqwa, and few religious acts provide a greater opportunity for its cultivation than Ramadan.
Allah says after the verse initially quoted:
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وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
He wants you to complete the prescribed period (of fasting) so that you can magnify the greatness of Allah for His having guided you and so that – perchance – you may be thankful. [2: 185].
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The greatness of Ramadan, therefore, lies in the opportunity it offers to develop Taqwa. This virtue allows us to truly participate in that great cosmic celebration in honor of the revelation of the Quran as a Huda to all people, which is, as mentioned earlier, Ramadan itself. It is a virtue. Furthermore, that allows us to magnify Allah as He ought to be magnified, namely, with complete awareness of our earthly duties and spiritual vocation, and, therefore, to be of those who are truly thankful to Allah. It is a virtue, too, which is ultimately celebrated in the Quran itself, for Allah says:
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يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
O humankind! We have created you from male and female and fashioned you into peoples and tribes that you may come to know one another. But indeed, the most honored amongst you (in the sight of Allah) are the most righteous and God-conscious. (taqwa). [49: 13].
Shaykh Seraj Hasan Hendricks is an internationally recognized leading scholar of normative Sunni Islam, steeped in the rich legacy of the classical heritage, based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is Resident Shaykh of the Zawiyah Institute in Cape Town and holder of the Maqasid Chair at the International Peace University of South Africa. Shaykh Seraj studied the Islamic sciences for more than a decade in the holy city of Makka and was appointed as khalīfa of the aforementioned muḥaddith of the Ḥijāz, the distinguished al-Sayyid Muhammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, master of the Ṭarīqa ʿUlamāʿ Makka – the (sufi) path of the Makkan scholars.
Shaykh Seraj Hendricks was a high school English teacher between 1980 and 1982 in Cape Town before leaving for Saudi Arabia in 1983 to study at the Umm al-Qura University in Makka. Before this, he spent many years studying at the feet of his illustrious uncle, the late Shaykh Mahdi Hendricks – erstwhile Life President of the Muslim Judicial Council and widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of Islam in southern Africa. Shaykh Seraj was actively engaged in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 80’s and early 90’s.
Shaykh Seraj spent three years at the Arabic Language Institute in Makka studying Arabic and related subjects before being accepted for the BA (Hons) Islamic Law degree. He specialized in fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh in the Faculty of Sharīʿa and graduated in 1992. During his studies at Umm al-Qura University, he was also a student of the late Sayyid Muhammad ʿAlawī al-Mālikī in Makka for eight years and from whom he obtained a full ijāza in the religious sciences. He also obtained ijāzāt from both the late Sayyid Ahmad Mashur al-Ḥaddād and Sayyid ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Ahmad al-Saqqaf (d. 1431/2010). These scholars are all known worldwide as some of the pre-eminent ‘ulama of the ummah in the 20th century.
After his return to Cape Town, he received an MA (Cum Laude) for his dissertation: “Taṣawwuf (Sufism) – Its Role and Impact on the Culture of Cape Islam” from the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is currently at the tail-end of completing his PhD at the same institution.
Apart from fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh, some of Shaykh Seraj’s primary interests are in Sufism, Islamic civilization studies, interfaith matters, gender studies, socio-political issues, and related ideas of pluralism and identity. He has lectured and presented papers in many countries, sharing platforms with his contemporaries.
He has translated works of Imam al-Ghazālī and summarised parts of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn), most notably in the Travelling Light series, together with Shaykhs ʿAbd al-Hakīm Murad and Yaḥyā Rhodus.
Some of his previous positions included being the head of the Muslim Judicial Council’s Fatwa Committee (which often led to him being described as the ‘Mufti of Cape Town’), lecturer in fiqh at the Islamic College of Southern Africa (ICOSA), and lecturer in the Study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Currently, he is a member of the Stanlib Sharīʿa Board and the chief arbitrator (Ḥakīm) of the Crescent Observer’s Society and has been listed consecutively in the Muslim 500 from 2009 to 2018. He was also appointed Dean of the Madina Institute in South Africa, a recognized institution of higher learning in South Africa and part of the world Madina Institute seminaries led by Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Ninowy. Shaykh Seraj is also a professor at the International Peace University of South Africa, holding the Maqasid Chair for Graduate Studies.
Shaykh Seraj has also been teaching a variety of Islamic-related subjects at the Zāwiyah Mosque in Cape Town, which together with his brother Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks, he is the current resident Shaykh of. Alongside his brother, he is the representative (khalīfa) of the muḥaddith above of the Ḥijāz, the distinguished al-Sayyid Muhammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, master of the Ṭarīqa ʿUlamāʿ Makka – the (sufi) path of the Makkan scholars.
