Hijri New Year Mubarek Olsun!

The Islamic New Year has entered Elhemdullillah. The calendar of Islam is a holy and spiritual calendar, focused around marking time according to holy days and nights that Allah SWT has chosen. It is a refreshing way to think about the passing of time when compared to the western calendar, with its symbolically idolatrous names and interesting conventions like “leap year”. In Islam our calendar is based off of the blessed moon and it’s waxing and waning. As Sheykh Lokman Efendi says, “if you don’t understand the importance of the moon by now, you are missing something”. The moon not only helps us keep time, but without it, life on earth as we know it would be impossible to sustain. The moon’s presence maintains a gravitational balance with earth, affecting the tides, animals, plant growth, and also animal and human behavior. All of these things are important biologically and physically, but the moon also indicates so many things in Islam such as the start and ending of Ramazan, the sunnat fasts on the “white days”, as well as the sacred months mentioned in the Quran when fighting and war is forbidden. The light of the moon is different from sunlight and brings its own energy and life. The moon orbits around the earth, making its own kind of tawaaf, as both of them orbit around the sun. This relationship is ripe with symbolism as well: the murid serves his or her Sheykh and their relationship is in service to Allah SWT and his Holy Prophet AS. Hazrati Mevlana Celaluddin Rumi (KS) is perhaps the most famous of Islamic poets and he often speaks of the sun and moon in spiritually symbolic terms. 

“Some nights stay up till dawn,

as the moon sometimes does for the sun. 

Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way of a well,

then lifted out into light.”

As we enter in this new year with the himmet of our Sheykh Lokman Efendi, let us be full of the love of Allah SWT and His Holy Prophet AS and the love of our Sheykh, who reflects the jamal and jalaal of Sahib El- Saif (KS) and the unending beauty of this Naksibendi way, Amin.

Back to Reflections Share this