Next week, Vancouver Muslims will join fellow believers worldwide to mark a crucial event in the development of their faith and its practices. Among the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, Lailat al Mi’raj occurs on the 27th day of Rajab, the seventh month in the Islamic calendar. This year, that corresponds with this Tuesday, May 27.
The holy day commemorates the Muslim belief that the archangel Gabriel came to the Prophet Muhammad in his sleep and together they travelled on a winged steed from Mecca to “the farthest mosque.” Muslim commentators later identified the destination as Jerusalem, where Muhammad was said to have visited the Temple of Solomon. Then, from a rock at the Temple, Gabriel carried Muhammad to heaven, where he communed with biblical figures including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other Prophets who had come before. In heaven, Muhammad received the instruction that Muslims should pray five times daily, a core tenet of Islamic practice.
For Ameeruddin Mohammad, a Vancouver Muslim, the day represents an opportunity for “purifying myself from the inside.”
“I pray,” he says. “And I am grateful to God that I was born a Muslim. Last year on this day, I read a chapter on Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him’s life.” He takes the lessons of the Prophet’s life and tries to infuse some of those qualities into his own character.
Mohammad, who graduated this year from business management at Langara and is now pursuing a second degree there in accounting, came to Canada from Bangladesh a decade ago. Migrating from a place with a large Muslim majority to a place where Muslims are a small minority has not been a great challenge, he says. Practising his religion in the city is not difficult and he has not experienced overt discrimination, though he acknowledges he sometimes feels an “undercurrent” of anti-Muslim sentiment, which he blames on media depictions, not on the individuals who exhibit subtle prejudices.
In addition to his studies, Mohammad has been a councillor on the Langara Student Union and is active in the Muslim Students Association on campus. It is a symptom of Canada’s multicultural ferment — and his place in it — that Mohammad earns money working in an Irish pub, even though he adheres strictly to Islam’s no-alcohol stricture.
Mohammad acknowledges that he may not always pray five times a day and says he is a deeply spiritual Muslim, but not always religious in the strictest sense. He may not adhere to the exacting demands of Muslim practice, but says he is “in constant reverence of God,” which prevents him from lying, stealing or saying something hurtful.
“The physical manifestation of Islam is obviously praying five times a day,” he says. “But what Islam is, in essence — and this is one of the days that I use to remind myself of it — is that Islam is a faith and it is forgiving. Learning how to forgive; Islam is present in that. Not holding grudges; Islam is present in that. I use these days, especially Lailat al Mi’raj, to remind myself of that.”
So, on Tuesday, he will spend the day in prayer and reflection.
“It’s a day for Muslims to reflect on some of the mistakes, some of the bad habits that we develop,” he says. “It’s a constant journey. Every year on Lailat al Mi’raj I will remind myself what are some of the things I need to rectify in me. Am I getting too angry? I should not get too angry. But after Lailat al Mi’raj, the next day and for the rest of the year, I will make those same mistakes and next year on Lailat al Mi’raj I will remind myself again. The objective is never to reach perfection, but to strive for perfection. And you land somewhere closer to good than bad.”
