As Muslims prepare for the holy month of Ramadan, we can reflect upon words from Spiritual Directors International member Sheikh Jamal Rahman. In 2009, Rahman, together with Kathleen Schmitt Elias, and Ann Holmes Redding authored the most recent book in the Spiritual Directors International imprint series, Out of Darkness, Into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.

We learn:

In Islam, whose name means surrender to God, the central goal is to live our lives in the spirit of surrender to our Creator. Seekers of any religious tradition have a similar desire to achieve union with Divine Reality. Whether we call it surrender, redemption, union, or quest for inner freedom, the journey is the same. It is a lifelong adventure, and along the way there are many twists and turns, many opportunities to get lost or go astray. There are no maps to guide the human heart, but in every religion there are teachers and basic guidebooks—scriptures and sacred texts that point the way toward Mystery. In Islam, we have the Quran. We also have fourteen centuries of wisdom distilled from the Holy Book by Islamic sages, mystics, and teachers. From the Quran we learn, for instance, of the delights that we will enjoy in the Divine Presence if we have learned to bring our hearts “turned in devotion to God” (50:33), and from the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Maulana Jelaluddin Rumi we learn what that devotion should look like. When a woman asked her lover if he loved her as much as he loved himself, he replied that his whole being was so full of her that there was nothing left of his own existence except his name. Feel toward God, Rumi says, as that lover felt toward his beloved.

To read more about Out of Darkness, Into Light, click here.

In preparation for the holy month of Ramadan, Maggie Galehouse reports for Houston Belief published by The Houston Chronicle:

The family looks forward to this time of spiritual and physical purification, and all generations are eager to help define it. Ramadan is a month of introspection, they say. A month of mercy, patience and self-discipline. A time to refrain from unkindness and dishonesty. “The whole point is to carry this behavior on beyond Ramadan, to raise your God consciousness,” said Aisha Jalali, who has five children with her husband, Waseem Ahmed.

To read the entire article, click here.