Introduction

Like many of you, I have been watching the news of the world unfold with a heavy heart and a confused brain.

We are witnessing levels of cruelty, dehumanization, and moral numbness that leave many of us asking the same painful questions:
How can human beings do this? How can they justify it? How can they live with themselves? Where is their conscience?

When our minds and intellects cannot come up with any answers, it is time to turn to Divine Wisdom to make sense of it all.

The Quran reminds us that such moral collapse does not happen overnight. It is rarely the result of a single decision or a sudden loss of humanity. Rather, evil acts in this form are the outcome of a gradual process, a slow silencing of the inner voice that tries to stop human beings until acts that once felt unthinkable begin to feel permissible.

This is why I chose this theme for Ramadan. To try and understand how humans can sink so low and more importantly to remind ourselves to take Divine Guidance seriously so that we do not fall prey to that which we look down upon. 

Ramadan is often described as a month of discipline, restraint, and self-control.
Of course it is all of that AND it is a month of re-orientation and re-alignment. A month of turning back. Of reflecting on Divine Wisdom to help us navigate this increasingly challenging earthly existence. 

During this sacred time, Allah invites us to restore our inner alignment towards Him before our drifting settles into distance and before this distance becomes indifference. For when human beings become indifferent to our attachment towards Him and to His Guidance, we can become capable of acts of evil and inhumanity. 

Allah has gifted us an inner voice, a moral compass to nudge and guide us when we are staying into questionable moral territory. The Quran speaks directly to this inner faculty and gives it a name: the nafs al-lawwāmah (the self-reproaching soul), a part of the human being so vital that Allah swears by it. This is the inner guide that unsettles us when we cross moral lines, that makes wrongdoing uncomfortable, and that calls us back toward what is right. 

When this inner guide is listened to, it protects our humanity and allows us focus on our purpose for being here and allow us to achieve our full human potential.
On the other hand, when it is ignored, overridden, or repeatedly silenced, the heart slowly hardens to wrongdoing and we are capable of doing the unthinkable.

It is so easy to point fingers outward and see how others are committing evil acts. What may be more beneficial for ourselves is to understand how moral erosion happens so that we may guard ourselves against it. It is about nurturing the conscience so that it remains alive, sensitive, and responsive, even in a world that constantly pressures us to normalize harm, excuse injustice, or to look away.

Over this Ramadan, we will Inshallah reflect together on verses of the Qur’an that help us:

•       Reflect upon the creation of human beings, our innate nature and what leads us to rise and fall on the moral spectrum
•       Learn to recognize the signs of a silenced conscience
•       understand the difference between constructive guilt and destructive shame
•       learn how to turn back when we fall short
•       and keep our inner guide awake, especially in times of moral confusion

My hope is that these reflections help us emerge from Ramadan not only more disciplined, but more morally awake and more anchored in the values Allah placed within us from the beginning. In other words to nurture our conscience so that we live aligned with our fitrah. 

So let us take this journey together, learn from and support each other in remaining true to the goodness that is part of our creational design, our innate nature IA. 

May this month soften and open our hearts to Divine wisdom, sharpen our awareness, and strengthen our commitment to live with conscience and act with courage.

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