In The Name of The True and Living God The Beneficent The Merciful.

Ramadan is upon us. Ramadan is a time when Muslims undergo a major shift in their daily routines, habits and lifestyles. If you’re a Muslim reading this you already know what’s up, and if you’re a non-Muslim reading this who most likely has Muslim friends, you know what’s up too.

“Not even water?”

The most obvious tradition in Ramadan is fasting from food and drink from dawn to dusk. And while this is a major part of it, it’s not as superficial as it is often made out to be. The abstinence from food and drink is of course the core requirement, but it’s a gateway into something much deeper.

I’m not going to list out the health or psychological benefits of fasting, we’ve seen those before and intermittent fasting has been and is very popular among the masses. You can research this further from experts for yourselves. But I will say that fasting opens the heart, the mind and the soul to deeper connections and the connection that is the most important is the one between a person and their Lord The Almighty.

Without food and drink, we are light. We are who we are. We are who we made ourselves to be through our endless decisions since the day we were born. We are also what we are based on the food and drink we consume. And without those influences for the majority of the day, we are able to connect with ourselves, we are able to keep at bay one of the fundamental desires of being human – food.

Perhaps it’s often overlooked, but food and drink are, of course, needed for survival but they’re also what we desire the most. Unless someone is addicted to alcohol or crack or cigarettes or something else that’s highly addictive, food and drink is what we crave the most and the craving is frequent.

Controlling One’s Desires

So what happens when you are able to keep such desires and cravings at bay?

What does it tell you about yourself?

What does it tell you about following Divine guidelines?

What does it tell you about your priorities?

You are able to forgo food and drink, the fundamentals of your existence and your deepest desires for a few hours in obedience to your Lord. Even if we attempt to look at this from a non-theological perspective, it shows that we are able to – for a set amount of time – put aside our desires in service of our beliefs and our values. As Muslims, obeying the command and abstaining from food and drink between the set times is more important to us than obeying the signals from our stomachs. So if we are able to do that, what else could we do?

Now, the food and drink part is the core. It’s fundamental. It’s the one thing you do to have your fast accepted (bar a few exceptions that we don’t need to get into here). However, fasting from food and drink is also symbolic. Allow me to explain.

Food and drink are human needs but they are also human desires and we are able to forgo them between dawn and dusk for a month indicating the ability to control said desires.

On the other hand, it is a Divine command and it is followed because it is a Divine command, this isn’t a matter of logic, so we are able to follow the command that is given as an act of worship.

Therefore if we are able to carry out the food and drink part of the fast as a double-intentioned act of a) controlling our desires and b) obeying the Divine command, then we must apply those principles to other areas of our lives.

Ramadan Muslims

In Ramadan, Muslims typically change their lifestyles in two ways. They let go of their desires and they increase their acts of worship. As a crude example that both Muslims and non-Muslims would understand: a Muslim who drinks would give up drinking and at the same time they would pray more often. A crude example, I know, but the point is that we would typically do less of the things we desire (more so things we shouldn’t be doing anyway such as swearing and going places we shouldn’t etc.) and we would do more of the things commanded to us such as praying, reading the Quran, being dutiful to parents, strengthening ties of kinship, giving charity and so on.

At this point some people might be thinking “oh, they’re just Ramadan Muslims” and while that is true, let me tell you what’s even truer – every Muslim is a Ramadan Muslim. It is wrong to look down on someone who lives a certain lifestyle that is contradictory to the teachings of Islam but changes in Ramadan for Ramadan. Because even the most religious and the most pious of people change during Ramadan. Why do we not judge the latter but we are harsh on the former? Let’s just say Alhamdulillah our Ultimate Judge is going to be The Almighty and not any feeble human being.

The point is, Ramadan is an opportunity. Ramadan is a time for us to let go of bad habits and make new ones. And yes, everyone goes harder in Ramadan – that’s the point, that’s what makes it special, that’s why it’s only here for a month. Ramadan is supposed to have a compounding effect throughout the length of our lives. Imagine over a period of 20-30 years, if one simply leaves one bad habit and adds one good habit every year, they would become an entirely different person. And while Ramadan is a religious period, it is also a period that helps us become better as humans, not just as Muslims. Perhaps we end up reading more, perhaps we swear less, perhaps we stop backbiting, perhaps we become more generous, or perhaps we build new relationships. Of course, all those things have a high rank in Islam, but in the eyes of humanity as a whole it would make someone a better member of society.

Music?

Ok great, you might be thinking “bro what does any of this have to do with music?” – I had to give you a framework before the connection between Music & Ramadan can make sense.

This article was inspired by one of my OG supporters who one Ramadan I think about 4 years ago after I posted that I won’t be posting any music asked me if music was haram (impermissible). Now, that’s a can of worms I will not open because I’m not a qualified Islamic jurist, but I will tell you the three most-popular opinions and rulings. The majority of Muslims fall into one of these three camps.

1. The first believe that music is indisputably haram (impermissible). They argue that any form of musical instrument is not allowed – playing or listening.
2. The second believe that music is allowed, however, the content of the song has to be clean. For example no swearing, no vulgarity, nothing that incites indecent behaviour.
3. The third believe that music is a grey area – there is no clear-cut ruling that it is impermissible such as the rulings on alcohol and swine. But because it’s a grey area they stay away from it to be on the safe side.

There are other opinions but these are the most common. This isn’t a debate or an argument. I couldn’t care less about that. But this is to show that all 3 of these camps have their proofs and their understandings and it’s no one’s right to say any of them are wrong. You follow what you follow. But this is to educate both Muslims and in particular, non-Muslims, so they may understand why their favourite artists who happen to be Muslims might not drop music in Ramadan or why their colleagues suddenly stop blasting JAY-Z in their cars as they pull up to work (I used to do this ngl – obnoxiously).

Music is also entertainment. To quote Jigga at the end of his song Ignorant sh*t he says: “It’s only entertainment!” because that’s what it ultimately is. And beyond any specific ruling or opinion one might follow, Ramadan isn’t a time for us to be entertained with things created for entertainment.

I mentioned earlier how even the pious would supercharge their worship in Ramadan, yes, even the scholars would put aside their books of knowledge and focus entirely on The Quran (The Quran was revealed in Ramadan).

And while I do quote Jay and Cole and whoever else, I always take the good and leave the bad. That’s just my philosophy. I would perhaps fall into the second camp, but in Ramadan, I fall into no camp but the camp that focuses on the spirit and themselves with as little external influence as possible.

I remind myself and others that Ramadan isn’t a time to necessarily go cold turkey and leave everything. If you can, great, but we’re human. We enter Ramadan without the influence of Shaitaan but we enter with the influence of our lower selves. So whatever happens in Ramadan, it’s entirely from us. The goal is to leave behind some bad habits and to pick up some new good ones.

I say all this to remind my fellow Muslims and in the hope of educating my non-Muslim friends allowing them to also understand why they may see changes in their Muslim friends. This will also hopefully help you understand why there may be a shift in the type of content during Ramadan. I would like to focus on Muslim artists such as Yasiin Bey, Brother Ali, Lupe, Beanie Siegel etc. and focus on lyrics that feature Islamic teachings such as those from Jay Electronica and the occasional JAY-Z bar in which he mentions Allah’s Name.

Rounding up

If you find that music distracts you, try taking a break. If you find yourself listening to songs that are vulgar and profane, try listening to something that isn’t. If you want to challenge yourself by not listening to music for 30 days to keep away any mainstream influence on your behaviour, try listening to vocals or instrumentals only.

Here you can find a list of artists whose content is clean and more suitable for Ramadan.

And here you can find a list of artists whose content contains no music whatsoever but is made with vocals only.

Remember the purpose of Ramadan. The same thing applies to tv shows, movies, novels, and anything else that relates to entertainment – anything that may distract you from your purpose. The Shaitaan is locked up, this is your chance to work on yourself with no negative whispers in your ear.

And if you happen to be a non-Muslim reading this and you have Muslim friends, make it easy for them. Don’t play tunes in the car. Don’t invite them to parties. Look out for them as you would like to be looked out for. And if you don’t have any Muslim friends, look into Islam. You will be more than pleasantly surprised with what you find.

I ask The Almighty to bless every person whose eyes glanced over these words I’ve written and to guide us all in this journey called life.

And even though I’m a couple of days early – Ramadan Mubarak.

#HoodIntellectuals