<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">Ramadan
2014</b><br>
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_07f93972-a488-4556-9a60-36793f6d0b95"><font color="black" size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">The season begins on Sunday evening, June 29, and ends
on Sunday night, July 27, thirty days later.
In the Hijri Islamic calendar, it is the 1435</span>th<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "> observance of fasting from sun-up
to sundown.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">Like many religious observances, this one has
practical origin. The fasting of the
Syrian Christians Lenten season preceded it, but Ramadan was also a response to
the scorching heat and extreme dryness of the year, thus, fasting and
inactivity during the day made lots of physiological sense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. <i>Shahadah
</i>is the foundation, declaring the oneness of God (“la ilaha illa Allah”),
and Muhammad is the messenger of a radical lucidity on the unity of life. Five times each day, the ritual of prayer, <i>salat, </i>is observed. Social responsibility is pegged at 2.5
percent of one’s savings, the <i>zakat,</i>
shared with the poor and needy in one’s community. <i>Sawm </i>is
the fasting and the discipline of self-control during the month of
Ramadan. Once in a lifetime, a devotee
undertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca called the <i>Hajj.</i></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C;vertical-align:baseline"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">“Salaam
malaikum”</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> and <i>“Malaikum
salaam,</i>” are greetings approximating the salutations of “Peace be with you”
and “And also with you.” The Muslim
greeting is heard on the streets of Saipan as muezzins of two mosques on island
call the faithful to prayers. As a
minority group, they are perhaps more dismissive of the Shia/Sunni divide that
is wrecking havoc in areas where the Muslims are a majority, and be more
conciliatory to each other in the manner prescribed in the Quran.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">In predominantly Muslim Iraq, the Kurds,
Shiites and Sunnis have difficulty getting their act together, not just for the
ethno-nationalism predominant in the region but also the economic power
struggle on who has access and control of the black gold on the ground.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">Recent diplomatic effort of John Kerry
of the U.S. State Department to promote a unity government in Iraq got a turn down
from PM Maliki who do not see a greater representation of the Sunni Arab
community led previously by deposed Saddam Hussein. The sectarian and authoritarian policies of Maliki
are exploited by jihadist militants fomenting for Islamic States in Iraq and
the rest of the Levant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">We demonize Islam</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> similar
to what progressives and liberals in the U.S. do when we go after the pick-up
riding white <i>Kristian </i>rednecks that
are alleged cousins to the Ku Klux Klan.
In the devotion to Allah, the ethos of unity is an overriding concern,
thus, the harmony of its faithful is a given expectation. The same expectation surrounds the overarching
power of “love” in the Christian tradition.
The assertive defense of Israel towards its ancient borders is
understandable in light of its history since the Roman Empire took over
Jerusalem to Germany’s policy and practice of genocide in the Holocaust during
WWII. One cannot say the same of the
imperial designs of both Christendom and Islam.
Still, it is well to glean the gifts of three traditions from the
Levant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">I was introduced to the authority of scriptures in
Protestant Christianity that led to the priesthood of all believers and the confidence
in each one to decide on one’s own on matters of faith and practice. The reality of the-way-life-is I took to be
the all-powerful faith statement of YHWH folks of Jerusalem, leading them to
decide ethnically to be the covenant people to lead in “praise” of that
reality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">The covenant to be personally chosen became a matter
of choice, to play the role of the Christ, unfortunately deformed in the
current idolatry of Jesus. Mohammad
brought that back to the complete freedom of the “prophet-hood” but instead of
sticking to the night of power when the <i>Quran,
</i>Allah’s<i> </i>self-revelation, was
first revealed to the prophet, now celebrated in Ramadan, followers quickly converted
the event into the idolatry of the book, the authority of those who perceive
themselves to be its keepers, and the exclusiveness of its male-centered
hierarchy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">Authority has become an issue in our time. The Zionists understandably established the
Land of Israel after the western millennial anti-Semitic history. Ecclesiastical authority was the Church’s
concern since Constantine that got anchored in the primacy of the Bishop of
Rome, later supplanted by the paper pope and the integrity of all
believers. Mohammed had the prospect of
pulling authority out of social structures into the authenticity of freedom but
the politics of the bubbly crude in the desert got his followers into power
struggles. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">In our time, the whole issue of “authority” is in
question. The reality of authenticity,
not authority, is the ascendant human spirit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:">The divesting of “things,” faithfully adhering to Allah
as the “no-thing” during Ramadan, is in tune to Christian existentialist and phenomenologists’
move from creed to social action, but now, as a thorough-going secularist, I
say, a return to the wisdom of YHWH, the way-life-is, without authority of learned
“experts”, but on the authentic witness of individual instinct, intuition,
intellect, and intention, we might yet turn the arid air of the desert to the
productive human spirit of the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C;vertical-align:baseline">"Salaamu
`Alaykum."</span></i><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"></span></i></div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
</div>
</font>
</div>
</div>
</font>