ht: dave p

German soccer gets ruling on Ramadan fasting

BERLIN (AP)—A Muslim group and German soccer authorities said Wednesday they have determined that professional Muslim players may break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The announcement followed a dispute involving second-division club FSV Frankfurt, which last year gave a formal warning to three of its players for fasting.

During Ramadan, devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, abstaining even from water. The club had a clause in contracts stating that wasn’t allowed without its express permission.

Germany’s Central Council of Muslims said it sought advice from Al-Azhar in Egypt, the pre-eminent theological institute of Sunni Islam, and elsewhere.

Al-Azhar ruled that if a player is obliged to perform under a contract that is his only source of income, if he has to play matches during Ramadan, and if fasting affects his performance, then he can break his fast, the council said.

The European Council for Fatwa and Research supported that ruling, it added.

“The Muslim professional can make good the fasting days in times when there are no matches, and so continue to pay God and the holy month of Ramadan honor and respect,” Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims, said in a statement.

He noted that “keeping the body healthy plays a leading role in Islam.”

“We very much welcome it that an arrangement has now been found that allows players to carry out professionally their work in high-performance sport and in doing so live their faith to the full,” FSV Frankfurt manager Bernd Riesig said.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-germany-ramadanfasting

I am both the disciple of God (murid allah) and His desire (murad Allah) The chain of my discipleship is connected with God without any mediation. My hand is a substitute for the hand of God. I am a disciple of Muhammad connected with him through many intermediaries : in the Naqshbandi order there are twenty one intermediaries in between; in the Qadiri, twenty-five; and in the Chishti, twenty-seven; but my relationship with Allah as a disciple is not subject to any mediation, as has already been related. Hence I am both the disciple of Muhammad the Messenger of Allah and his co-disciple (ham pirah), that is, we are both disciples of the same master: Allah). Though I am a parasite at the table of this wealth, sitting near the Prophet , yet I have not come uninvited; though I am a follower (tabi), I am not without a share of genuineness (asalah); though I am a common believer (ummat), I am sharing in the wealth. This is not a sharing from which a claim of equality would arise; this would be infidelity (kufr). It is a sharing of a servant with a master. Until he called, I did not come to the table of this wealth and until he expressed his wish, I did not stretch my arm to partake in it. Though I am Uwaysi, I have an Omnipresent and All-seeing instructor (murabbi-yi hazir o nazir) . Though in the Naqshbandi order my instructor is Abd al Baqi yet the One who has undertaken my instruction is the Everlasting One (al-Baqi) . His glory is great and is munificence all-pervading. I have received my instruction through His) grace and I have gone the way of the elect. My chain [silsila] is that of the Merciful (rahmani), because I am a servant of the Merciful (abd al-rahman). My Lord is the Merciful One – great is His glory and all-pervading His munificence – and my instructor is the Most Compassionate ahram al-rahimin).

My path is the path of Subhani. I have gone the way of the tanzih; through Name and Attribute I am not seeking anything but the Essence. This subani is not the subhani which was the creed of [Abu Yazid] Bistami. The two do not have anything in common. That one [Bistamis] has not gone out of the circle of the souls: the one [mine] is beyond the souls and the horizons. That one is tashbih cloaked in tanzih; this one is tanzih untouched by even a grain of tashbih. The Most Compassionate did not use in my case anything but muaddat as a means of instruction; His grace was the only active factor in it. His great generosity, care and zeal for me prevented Him from allowing anyone else to take part in my instruction, but I have approached someone else in this matter. I am a divine disciple (murabba-yi ilahi-great is his glory and and elect of His boundless grace and generosity.

Maktubat III 145-146

I have not been brought into this world for the sake of Sufi Instruction (piri) or discipleship (muridii). I was not created in order to perfect and guide the people. My work is different and so is my workshop. Whoever has the proper attitude in this matter will receive the divine bounty; others will not receive it. The work of perfecting and guidance [of the people] is, in comparison with that work [of mine], like a thing lying rejected on the road (ka al matruh fi al tariq). The call (dawah ) of the prophets is also of the same standing when compared with their esoteric mission (muamalati- batiniyah). Though the office of prophecy came to an end, yet the perfect followers of the prophets have a share in the perfections of prophecy through their following and inheritance.

Maktubat II 16-17

Excerpted Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path Truth
Al-Ghunya li-Talibi Tariq al-Haqq Volume 3, pg 34
By Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, tran: Holland
–
Traditional reports in which great emphasis is placed on the special merit of fasting on the first Thursday in Rajab, and of performing the ritual prayer [salat] during the first Friday night of that month.

The following report has been conveyed to us by Shaikh Imam Abu’l-Barakat ['Father of Blessings'] Hibatu’llah ibn al-Mubarak as-Saqati (may Allah bestow His mercy upon him), who cites good traditional authority in support of its authenticity: Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) once said:

Rajab is Allah’s month, Sha’ban is my month, and Ramadan is the month of my Community [Ummati].

Someone then asked him: “O Messenger of Allah, what do you mean exactly, when you say that Rajab is Allah’s month?” So he explained (Allah bless him and give him peace):

” [I call it Allah's month] because it is specifically associated with forgiveness, because in it the shedding of blood is brought to a halt, because in it Allah (Exalted is He) relents toward His Prophets [anbiya'], because in it He rescues His saints [awliya'] from the hands of their enemies, and because anyone who fasts during this month becomes entitled to receive three things from Allah (Exalted is He). The first and second of these are forgiveness for all the sins he has previously committed, and impregnable virtue ['isma] for the remainder of his life. As for the third, he will be safe from thirst on the Day of the Greatest Review [Yawm al-'Ard al-Akbar].”

At this point a feeble old man stood up and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I am physically incapable of fasting through the whole of the month,” so Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) went on to say:

“Fast during the first day of the month and during the day that comes in the middle of it, and also during the very last day of the month, for then you will be given the same reward as someone who has fasted through the whole of the month, since one good deed is equal in value to ten of the same kind.

” It is most important, however, that none of you should neglect the first Friday in Rajab, for it is the night that the angels call the Night of [the Granting of] Wishes [Lailat ar-Ragha'ib]. This is because, by the time the first third of the night has elapsed, there will not be a single angel still at large in the heavens, nor in any region of the earth bar one. They will all be gathered together in the Ka’ba and the area immediately surrounding it. Allah (Exalted is He) will condescend to notice that they have assembled there, and He will say: “My angels, ask Me for whatever you wish!” Their response to this will be: “Our Lord, the request we wish to make is that You grant forgiveness to those who faithfully keep the fast in Rajab,” whereupon Allah (Exalted is He) will tell them: “That I have already done!”

Then Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

” No one will go unrewarded if he fasts during the daytime on Thursday, the first Thursday in Rajab, and if he then performs twelve extra cycles of salat-prayer during the period between sunset [maghrib] and late evening ['isha'], i.e., during the first segment ['atama] of the night of Friday. In each cycle [rak'a] he must recite the Opening Sura of the Book [Fatihat al-Kitab] one time only, then the Sura that begins with “Behold, We sent it down on the Night of Power” three times, and the Sura that begins with “Say: ‘He is Allah, One’” twelve times. The twelve cycles must be divided into sets of two, with a salutation [taslima] to mark the conclusion of each pair.”

When he has completed his salat-prayer, he must invoke blessings upon me, by repeating seventy times:

O Allah, bestow blessings and peace upon Muhammad, the Holy Prophet, and upon his family. He must then bow down low in an act of prostration [sajda], repeating seventy times while he is in the posture of prostration [sujud]:

All-Glorious, All-Holy,n Lord of the Angels and of the Spirit! Then he must raise his head and repeat seventy times:

My Lord, forgive and have mercy m pardon that which You well know, for You are the Mighty, the Supreme. f Then he must bow down low for the second time and repeat the words he uttered during the first prostration [sajda]. Finally, while he is still in the posture of prostration [sujud], he should ask Allah to grant his personal request, for that request will surely be fulfilled.

Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) also said:

” By Him in whose Hand is my soul [wa 'lladhi nafsi bi-yadih], I assure you that no servant [of His], whether manservant ['abd] or maidservant [ama], will ever perform this particular salat-prayer without Allah forgiving all the sins of which that individual has ever been guilty, even if they are like the flecks of foam upon the ocean, as numerous as all the grains of sand, as heavy as the mountains, and as many as the drops of rain and the leaves on all the trees. On the Day of Resurrection [Yawm al-Qiyama], he will be allowed to intercede on behalf of seven hundred members of his family.”

On the first night that worshipful servant spends in his grave, the reward for this salat-prayer will come to visit him [in the shape of a human being], with a cheerful face and an eloquent tongue. “O my dear friend,” it will say to him, “rejoice in the good tidings, for I am here to tell you that you have been delivered from every severe affliction!” This will prompt the servant to exclaim: “Who are you? By Allah, I swear that I have never seen a man with a better-looking face than yours. Never have I heard a form of speech more charming than your way of speaking, and never have I smelled a fragrance more delightful than that of your perfume.” So then it will tell him: “O my dear friend, I am the reward for that salat-prayer, the one you performed on whichever night it was, in whichever month it was, in whichever year it was. I have come here tonight in order to fulfill your request, to entertain you in your solitary state, and to banish your loneliness from you. Later on, when the trumpet is sounded, I shall provide you with shade to protect your head from the scorching heat on the Fields of the Resurrection ['Arasat al-Qiyama]. So rejoice in the good tidings, for you will never be deprived of the blessing that comes from your Master [Mawla].”