Tareen Rahman :
According to official Islamic bodies, the crescent moon will soon be sighted, welcoming the fasting month of Ramzan. This is the beginning of the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Lasting 29 or 30 days – the end date will be revealed through another official lunar sighting in the last week of the month.
Muslims are to refrain from eating from dawn to sunset, and they are not supposed to eat before ‘iftar’ (breaking the fast with taking food and liquid), or lie, speak wrong about anyone behind their backs or do anything that is prohibited or morally incorrect.
Ramzan is taken from the word ramz which means that which is intensely or vehemently heated by the sun. Ramzan was named such because it burns the sins of the believers. Therefore one of the main ways in which Allah eradicates and deletes our sins and wrong doings is by multiplying our good deeds in the month of Ramzan and erases our sins because the hasanat (good deeds) eliminates the sayyiaat (bad deeds).
Islamic researchers say, the Prophet (Sm) is reported to have said: “Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time.” (Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah)
It is the month in which the Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (Sm). As a result, Ramzan is also known as the month to recite the holy text even more eagerly and with renewed dedication to completing the task. Muslims are encouraged to complete the full recitation of the Holy Quran at least once during the month. With an average of 600 pages, this seemingly huge task can be achieved through the recitation of four pages before each of the five prayers daily throughout the entire month.
Ramzan is not simply an exercise in fasting during the day. Eating during the night and setting the clock to the morning’s hours for those inclined to rise for the pre-dawn meal is termed Sehri.
Neither is it about lacklustre employees who see the month as an excuse to slack off and overworked women slaving over a stove every day in preparation for the sunset meal. Ramzan is instead a chance for a spiritual boost, with lessons to be applied long after the month is out. It is one of Islam’s five main pillars (the others being the belief in one God and the Prophet Muhammad (Sm) as His Messenger, praying five times a day, completing the pilgrimage to Makka for those who are able and giving zakat or charity).
It is mandatory for all Muslims upon reaching puberty, as long as they are mentally and physically sound. The elderly and chronically ill are exempt from fasting.
However, it is incumbent upon them to feed the poor instead if they possess the financial means.
The fast is not simply about denying your body food and water. It also involves arguably the more taxing challenge of avoiding ill speech, arguments, loss of temper and malicious behaviour. The whole point of the fast is to demonstrate submission to Allah and keep the mind focused on a spiritual plane.
Patience and mercy, which we all need more of in these modern times is one lesson of Ramzan.
This month is viewed as a month-long school where graduates leave with a developed sense of self-control in areas including diet, sleeping and the use of time.
Purpose of fasting in Islam is to develop and strengthen our powers of self-control, so that we can resist wrongful desires and bad habits, and therefore ‘guard against evil.’ In fasting, by refraining from the natural human urges to satisfy one’s appetite, we are exercising our ability of self-restraint, so that we can then apply it to our everyday life to bring about self-improvement.
The targets of fasting during Ramadan are: to attain nearness and closeness to our holy Creator so that He becomes a reality in our lives. As we bear the rigors of fasting purely for the sake of following a Divine commandment, knowing and feeling that he can see all our actions however secret, it intensifies the consciousness of our Creator in our hearts, resulting in a higher spiritual experience, to learn to refrain from usurping other’s rights and belongings.
In fasting, we voluntarily give up even what is rightfully ours. Charity and generosity is especially urged during Ramadan. We learn to give, and not to take. The deprivation of fasting creates in us sympathy with the suffering of others, and desirous of alleviating it; and it makes us remember the blessings of life, which we normally take for granted.
Fasting is a spiritual practice to be found in all religions. The great Founders of various faiths (Buddha, Moses, Jesus, etc.) practiced quite rigorous fasting as a preliminary to attaining their first experience of spiritual enlightenment and communion with God.
A normal day of Ramzan for Muslims begins with prayer and there is a very distinguished kind of confidence instilled in the hearts of Muslims who perform prayers and are fasting. There is a consciousness that “Allah is watching me and all my deeds, and I need to be a good Muslim.”
In the day hours the challenge is to control hunger and thirst, give zakat (charity to the poor), pray at all the prescribed times, and do nothing wrong. As soon as the maghrib (evening) Azan is given the fast is broken by eating a date, after which a person can eat.
Iftar normally lasts about 10 to 15 minutes. Sponsoring Iftar is a great sawab, but one has to have financial resources to sponsor Iftars.
Even after a whole day of hunger Muslims do not think of having the Iftar without sharing food.
After Iftar, people go for maghrib prayers, After an interval, all go for the final Isha namaz (night prayers). In Ramzan, after Isha prayers there are also additional tarawih prayers. All pray together and then recount some aspects of Islam outside the mosque.
After tarawih prayers, all return to their homes from mosque. In the night, most of the people spend time with their families, some read the holy Qur’an, others pray additional Nafil prayers. The day ends with prayers and a satisfaction is felt in the heart. A hope and sense of joy rises in all, “today I tried to be a good Muslim. If I live tomorrow I shall continue to be a better Muslim.”
Through each entire day of Ramzan, every Muslim should try to find an opportunity where he can do something good for others. If he or she could stop a fight between two people it is a great sawab.
Doing our work in the right spirit is also a sawab. The more sawabs a person earns in his lifetime the better it is for him/her but in the month of Ramzan the sawab given to a Muslim for his good deeds is multiplied.
According to official Islamic bodies, the crescent moon will soon be sighted, welcoming the fasting month of Ramzan. This is the beginning of the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Lasting 29 or 30 days – the end date will be revealed through another official lunar sighting in the last week of the month.
Muslims are to refrain from eating from dawn to sunset, and they are not supposed to eat before ‘iftar’ (breaking the fast with taking food and liquid), or lie, speak wrong about anyone behind their backs or do anything that is prohibited or morally incorrect.
Ramzan is taken from the word ramz which means that which is intensely or vehemently heated by the sun. Ramzan was named such because it burns the sins of the believers. Therefore one of the main ways in which Allah eradicates and deletes our sins and wrong doings is by multiplying our good deeds in the month of Ramzan and erases our sins because the hasanat (good deeds) eliminates the sayyiaat (bad deeds).
Islamic researchers say, the Prophet (Sm) is reported to have said: “Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time.” (Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah)
It is the month in which the Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (Sm). As a result, Ramzan is also known as the month to recite the holy text even more eagerly and with renewed dedication to completing the task. Muslims are encouraged to complete the full recitation of the Holy Quran at least once during the month. With an average of 600 pages, this seemingly huge task can be achieved through the recitation of four pages before each of the five prayers daily throughout the entire month.
Ramzan is not simply an exercise in fasting during the day. Eating during the night and setting the clock to the morning’s hours for those inclined to rise for the pre-dawn meal is termed Sehri.
Neither is it about lacklustre employees who see the month as an excuse to slack off and overworked women slaving over a stove every day in preparation for the sunset meal. Ramzan is instead a chance for a spiritual boost, with lessons to be applied long after the month is out. It is one of Islam’s five main pillars (the others being the belief in one God and the Prophet Muhammad (Sm) as His Messenger, praying five times a day, completing the pilgrimage to Makka for those who are able and giving zakat or charity).
It is mandatory for all Muslims upon reaching puberty, as long as they are mentally and physically sound. The elderly and chronically ill are exempt from fasting.
However, it is incumbent upon them to feed the poor instead if they possess the financial means.
The fast is not simply about denying your body food and water. It also involves arguably the more taxing challenge of avoiding ill speech, arguments, loss of temper and malicious behaviour. The whole point of the fast is to demonstrate submission to Allah and keep the mind focused on a spiritual plane.
Patience and mercy, which we all need more of in these modern times is one lesson of Ramzan.
This month is viewed as a month-long school where graduates leave with a developed sense of self-control in areas including diet, sleeping and the use of time.
Purpose of fasting in Islam is to develop and strengthen our powers of self-control, so that we can resist wrongful desires and bad habits, and therefore ‘guard against evil.’ In fasting, by refraining from the natural human urges to satisfy one’s appetite, we are exercising our ability of self-restraint, so that we can then apply it to our everyday life to bring about self-improvement.
The targets of fasting during Ramadan are: to attain nearness and closeness to our holy Creator so that He becomes a reality in our lives. As we bear the rigors of fasting purely for the sake of following a Divine commandment, knowing and feeling that he can see all our actions however secret, it intensifies the consciousness of our Creator in our hearts, resulting in a higher spiritual experience, to learn to refrain from usurping other’s rights and belongings.
In fasting, we voluntarily give up even what is rightfully ours. Charity and generosity is especially urged during Ramadan. We learn to give, and not to take. The deprivation of fasting creates in us sympathy with the suffering of others, and desirous of alleviating it; and it makes us remember the blessings of life, which we normally take for granted.
Fasting is a spiritual practice to be found in all religions. The great Founders of various faiths (Buddha, Moses, Jesus, etc.) practiced quite rigorous fasting as a preliminary to attaining their first experience of spiritual enlightenment and communion with God.
A normal day of Ramzan for Muslims begins with prayer and there is a very distinguished kind of confidence instilled in the hearts of Muslims who perform prayers and are fasting. There is a consciousness that “Allah is watching me and all my deeds, and I need to be a good Muslim.”
In the day hours the challenge is to control hunger and thirst, give zakat (charity to the poor), pray at all the prescribed times, and do nothing wrong. As soon as the maghrib (evening) Azan is given the fast is broken by eating a date, after which a person can eat.
Iftar normally lasts about 10 to 15 minutes. Sponsoring Iftar is a great sawab, but one has to have financial resources to sponsor Iftars.
Even after a whole day of hunger Muslims do not think of having the Iftar without sharing food.
After Iftar, people go for maghrib prayers, After an interval, all go for the final Isha namaz (night prayers). In Ramzan, after Isha prayers there are also additional tarawih prayers. All pray together and then recount some aspects of Islam outside the mosque.
After tarawih prayers, all return to their homes from mosque. In the night, most of the people spend time with their families, some read the holy Qur’an, others pray additional Nafil prayers. The day ends with prayers and a satisfaction is felt in the heart. A hope and sense of joy rises in all, “today I tried to be a good Muslim. If I live tomorrow I shall continue to be a better Muslim.”
Through each entire day of Ramzan, every Muslim should try to find an opportunity where he can do something good for others. If he or she could stop a fight between two people it is a great sawab.
Doing our work in the right spirit is also a sawab. The more sawabs a person earns in his lifetime the better it is for him/her but in the month of Ramzan the sawab given to a Muslim for his good deeds is multiplied.
