Musings: July 2012

Ramadan, the most sacred month of the year for the Muslims is going on. All over the world, Muslims are fasting. For different regions Ramadan has different timings for fasting, the people living on the northern tip of Europe as in Finland have to be on fast for 20 hours a day as for them, the sun rises at 3:30 AM at sets around 11:30 PM and since every year Ramadan goes back in calendar for 11 days, probably in the coming years when Ramadan will fall in June, the sun will not be willing to set at all for them.

There is no doubt that this is a very sacred month, a month which Allah likes and a month which is called Kareem. It is "Kareem" in the sense that Allah has opened the door of forgiveness in this month so we can seek astaghfaar (repentance) for our small or big sins and can start afresh for the rest of our life but we need to keep in mind that repentance is only accepted when it is with the intention that the sin will not be committed again. if we repent to commit sin and commit sins to repent, be assured there is no forgiveness bestowing to us. In Ramadan it is believed that Satan is chained so people are more pious in their behavior and it keeps them away from vices. As a matter of fact Satan is still opened but since we are spiritually elevated because of fasting and prayers we do not lend our ears to his vicious whispering. but he may manage to misguide the people who either do fasting for name sake or do not fasting at all.

I have seen many people who get short tempered during Ramadan. the officials, the clerks, if you just ask them to repeat what they have said, they get irritated saying, "why are you troubling me in fasting ?" as if they are doing favour to others if they observe fasting. On the contrary we should be more polite and kind to others during Ramadan. If Ramadan is kareem then it should reflect through the people who observe fasting..

The same thing I observe on the roads/streets at the time of Iftar.some people get desperate to reach home or mosques and honk and shout and fly their vehicles..We need to understand that Ramadan teaches us the culture of pahle Aap (First you).

Most People understand that the Som ( fasting) means to be without food and water from the sunrise till sunset. Of course this is a part of fasting but this is not the fasting all about.. Ramadan has a sublime objective. Ramadan is a month of reflection and fasting is a way to do that.. the purpose of Ramadan is to awaken the human consciousness. Its not only to remain hungry during the day and then as soon as the sun sets, devour a lot of food and become heavy stomach. This month is for seeking closeness to Allah, being conscious of Allah all the time and refrain from all kind of sins. it is to purify the body as well as soul. We are not allowed to think even bad of others. If we are on fast and find our selves irritated,angry ,jealous, frustrated or negatively charged, its time for reflection, Its time for introspection.

One of the major distraction for human being towards Allah is food. Eating is the necessity of life but over eating is a vice and its the best used tool of Satan since most of the us do not or can not consider that over eating is a sin.. It's not a sin but it is instrumental to commit sins.Satan knows this best and often if he is not able to misguide people to commit other sins, he incites to have more n more food and we take it very legitimate requirement of our body. we may have a feeling of guilt after over eating in terms of our physicality or it may be against the doctor advise, but we seldom think it makes me commit sins. but this is what it is ..once we become stomach heavy, we are vulnerable and it is the time for Satan to attack us and he does.

Allah has given us the gift of Ramadan to show us that when we are light stomach how we can be more spiritual and close to Him. He has made it mandatory to be without food and water so that He can make sure that people are light stomach and they can learn this valuable lesson for the rest of the year/life. Being hungry is not the objective of Ramadan it's the medium to seek spirituality and seek closeness to Allah. Once we are spiritually elevated we pray to Allah a lot, we ourselves understand the plight of the people who are compelled to remain hungry throughout the year. As we get close to Allah we start loving the people, we start helping the creatures of Allah and we realize the valuable gifts from Him.

We should try to achieve the real objective behind Ramadan kareem so that it can enlighten our lives forever, keep us refrain from all the vices and material distractions and uplift our souls spiritually towards Allah subahanauta'alla InshaAllah .

Salim Husain