Today’s Taraweh: Dialing Allah..
A woman complained, and it was heard in the highest echelons of the Almighty, and the answer came with admonishment and to redress the wrongs.
Then… freedom for women if the marriage is broken, and then a promise: if you are God-conscious, He will find you an exit out of your difficulties that you could not even imagine, and then a command to drop all trade and attend Jummah with full focus.
And then the thunder of Surah Mulk: He is the Owner of the dominions of the worlds… bringing reassurance with awe.
Somewhere in the second half the environment blurred, and I felt the absence into thin air of the 164 schoolgirls of Iran and thought of the ice cream that I could have given them from my fridge, and then the heavy weight of regret that I couldn’t anymore…..
A strange thought…. Disjointed and sad.
I can’t remember which Surah we were on when this thought came and went…. The Musallah faded into a profound pavilion of peace as the Imam’s voice floated, tinged with sadness mixed with hope.
He had said at the Jummah khutbah that “some of you may not be here next Ramadan, so make the most of it.”
Shortly after that, a car swerved off the highway and crashed into the embankment, instantly killing the young man in the car who was fasting……
Grief settled like a cloud, soaking every person who heard of it!
Grief of a mother, a father, of a grandmother and a grandfather….
Perhaps it was this grief that had made me think of the 164 schoolgirls in Minab, completely obliterated by an American missile bought and paid for from the hard-earned tax money of the American people.
Today the recitation became personal, as the Imam’s voice soaked in grief not only for the young man, but for the mindless killing of human beings across the world….
This was the 25th night of Ramadan, when perhaps the Qur’an had been brought down by the angels as a Mercy to Mankind…… “ but mankind is truly ungrateful….” Says The Almighty!
And so the night progressed……