{"id":2064,"date":"2016-07-03T12:51:41","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T19:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2016-07-03T12:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T19:51:41","slug":"freedom-from-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/07\/freedom-from-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom From Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramadan is quickly coming to a close. \u00a0As I write, the 28th day is starting to wane. \u00a0I always feel melancholy as Ramadan prepares to leave us. \u00a0The abstaining from food and drink is not always so pleasant, but we learn to patiently deal with it as we move through the month. \u00a0The pangs of hunger, continuously reminding us of the state we are in, become dull and we don’t notice them so much by month’s end. \u00a0We start to turn inward and work on our spiritual-selves. \u00a0We pray more. \u00a0We read the Qur’an more. \u00a0We reflect on our shortcomings and work on becoming better humans. \u00a0We seek forgiveness from our Lord. \u00a0We give charity to those who are less fortunate. \u00a0We feed people. \u00a0The community comes together each night. \u00a0Camaraderie builds. \u00a0Old friends become new again. \u00a0 The relationship with our Creator becomes stronger. \u00a0We become more grateful for what we have. \u00a0By month’s end, the heart is overflowing with love, compassion, gratitude and hope.<\/p>\n

So, it is only natural that one would feel sad to see all of this vanish with the close of the month.<\/p>\n

The month of Ramadan also brings with it some amazing opportunities for what is to come once we leave this world. \u00a0The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) stated that the beginning of Ramadan is Mercy, the middle of Ramadan is Forgiveness and the end of Ramadan is Freedom from the Hell-Fire. \u00a0Likewise He (peace be upon him) stated Woe to those who fast Ramadan and are not emancipated from the Fire. \u00a0This brings on a great urgency as Ramadan closes \u00a0with increased worship in the hopes of finding that freedom.<\/p>\n

This year, 2016, we find ourselves planning to search for the new moon of the month of Shawwal, marking the end of Ramadan, on July 4th! \u00a0Here in the United States of America, of course July 4th is Independence Day, the day the founders of this great country liberated themselves from the tyranny of King George III of England in 1776. \u00a0From the location where I normally sight the new crescent moons, I can see nearly the entire San Francisco Bay Area. \u00a0It will be interesting to see all the firework displays from there all happening at the same time, at a great distance however, but nonetheless that will be a lot of fireworks!<\/p>\n

It struck me odd this year that we are ending the month of Ramadan with increased effort to find freedom from the Fire, and we will be closing out the month celebrating freedom with fire. I’m sure there is something deep to think about there but I have some more spiritual work to tend to.<\/p>\n

So to all my readers, a pre-Eid Mubarak and have a safe and happy 4th of July!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Freedom?<\/p><\/div>\n

Until next time, Peace.<\/p>\n

P.S. \u00a0Please remember to go out and search for the new crescent on July 4th. \u00a0I’ll be at Russian Ridge, my usual place, if anyone is interested in joining me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ramadan is quickly coming to a close. As I write, the 28th day is starting to wane. I always feel melancholy as Ramadan prepares to leave us. … It struck me odd this year that we are ending the month of Ramadan with increased effort to find freedom from the Fire, and we will be closing out the month celebrating freedom with fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[6,4,39,10],"tags":[41,298,17,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}