Ramadan greetings to everyone in advance. May Allah (SWT) make it easy
for all of us, and may He accept our fasting and forgive us for our sins
(ameen). Below is a pretty lenghty reading, but I think it will surely
worth your time.
God Bless!
Pa Mambuna
PROPHET SAYS: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Allah the
Almighty has said: O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of
Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O
son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you
then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were
you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you
then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you
forgiveness nearly as great as it." (Tirmidhi)
MEANING AND BLESSING OF FASTING
The second act of worship that Allah enjoins upon Muslims is Sawm or
fasting. It means abstaining from dawn to sunset from eating,
drinking and sex. Like Prayer, this act of worship has been part of the
teachings of all the Messengers. Their followers fasted as we do.
However, the rules, the number of days, and the periods prescribed for
Fasting have varied
from one Shariah (the revealed, or canonical, law of Islam) to another.
Today, although Fasting remains a part of most religions in some form
or other, people have often changed its original form by accretions of
their own.
O Believers! Fasting is ordained for you, even as it was ordained for
those before you." (The Qur'an 2:183). Why has this particular act of
worship been practiced in all eras?
Life Of Worship
Islam aims to transform the whole life of man into a life of worship. He
is born a slave; and to serve his Creator is his very nature. Not for a
single moment should he live without worshipping, that is surrendering
to Him in thoughts and deeds. He must remain conscious of what he ought
to do to earn the pleasure of Allah (SWT) and what he ought to avoid. He
should then walk on the path leading to Allah's pleasure, eschew that
leading to His displeasure just as he would avoid the embers of a fire.
Only when our entire lives have become modeled on this pattern can we be
considered to have worshipped our Master as is His due and as having
fulfilled the purport of "I have not created jinn and men except for My
lbadah (complete submission and obedience).
Rituals Lead To Worship
The real purpose of ritual acts of worship - Salah, Zakah, Sawm and Hajj
- is to help us to come to that life of total worship. Never think that
you can acquit yourselves of what you owe to Allah only if you bow and
prostrate yourselves five times a day, suffer hunger and thirst from
dawn to sunset for thirty days in Ramadan and, if wealthy, give alms and
perform the Pilgrimage once in a lifetime. Doing all this does not
release you from the bondage to Him, nor make you free to do whatever
you like. Rather, one of the underlying purposes of enjoining these
rituals upon you is to develop you so that you can transform your whole
lives into the lbadah of Allah.
The Private Worship
All acts of worship include some outward physical movement, but not
Fasting. In Prayer you stand, sit, bow down and prostrate yourselves;
all these acts are visible to everybody. In Hajj you undertake a long
journey and travel with thousands of people. Zakah, too, is known to at
least two persons, the giver and the receiver. None of these acts can
remain concealed; if you perform them, other people will come to know
about them.
But Fasting is a form of lbadah which is entirely private. The
all-knowing Allah alone knows that His servant is Fasting. You are
required to take food before dawn (Suhur) and abstain from eating and
drinking anything till the time to break the Fast (Iftar). But, if you
secretly eat and drink in between, nobody except Allah will know about
it.
Sure Sign Of Faith
The private nature of Fasting ensures that you have strong faith in
Allah as the One who knows everything. Only if your faith is true and
strong, will you not dream of eating or drinking secretly: even in the
hottest summer, when your throats dry up with thirst, you will not drink
a drop of water; even when you feel faint with hunger, when life itself
seems to be ebbing, you will not eat anything. To do all this, see what
firm conviction you must have that nothing whatsoever can ever be
concealed from Allah! How strong must be His fear and love in your
hearts. You will keep your Fast for about 360 hours for one full month
only because of your profound belief in the reward and punishment of the
Hereafter. Had you the slightest doubt that you have to meet your Maker,
you would not complete such a Fast. With doubts in the hearts, no such
resolves can be fulfilled
Month-long Training
In this way does Allah put to the test a Muslim's faith for a full month
every year. To the extent you emerge successful from this
trial, your faith becomes firmer and deeper. The Fasting is both a trial
and a training. If you deposit anything on trust with somebody, you are,
as it were, testing his integrity. If he does not abuse your trust, he
not only passes his test, but at the same time, also develops greater
strength to bear the burden of greater trusts in the future. Similarly,
Allah puts your faith to a severe test continuously for one month, many
long hours a day. If you emerge triumphant from this test, more strength
develops in you to refrain from other sins. This is what the Qur'an
says: "O Believers! Fasting is ordained for you, even as it was ordained
to
those before you, that you might attain to Allah-consciousness." (The
Qur'an 2:183).
Practicing Obedience
The Fasting has another characteristic. It makes us obey the injunctions
of the Shariah with sustained intensity for prolonged periods of time.
Salah lasts only a few minutes at a time. Zakah is paid only once a
year. Although the time spent on Hajj is long, it may come only once in
a lifetime. In the school of Fasting, you are trained to obey the
Shariah of Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him), for one full month,
every year, day and night. You have to get up early before dawn for
Suhur, stop all eating and drinking precisely at a certain time, do
certain activities and abstain from certain activities during the day,
break your Fast (Iftar) in the evening at exactly a certain time. Then,
for a few moments only you relax, before you hurry for long late evening
prayers (Tarawih).
Every year, for one full month from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn,
you, like a soldier in an army, continuously live a disciplined life.You
are then sent back to continue your normal duties for eleven months so
that the training you have received for one month may be reflected in
your conduct, and if any deficiency is found it may be made up the next
year.
Communal Fasting
Training of such profound nature cannot be imparted to each individual
separately. In just the way an army is trained, everyone has to act at
the same time at the sound of the bugle so that they may develop team
spirit, learn to act in unison, and assist each other in their task of
development. The month of Ramadan is earmarked for all Muslims to fast
together, to ensure similar
results. This measure turns individual Ibadah into collective lbadah.
Just as the number one, when multiplied by thousands, becomes a
formidable number, so the moral and spiritual benefits accruing from the
Fasting by one person alone are increased a millionfold if a million
people fast together.
The month of Ramadan suffuses the whole environment with a spirit of
righteousness, virtue and piety. As flowers blossom in spring, so does
Taqwa (fear and love of Allah) in Ramadan. Everyone tries extra hard to
avoid sin and, if they lapse, they know they can count on the help of
many brothers and sisters who are Fasting with them. The desire
automatically arises in every heart to do good works, to feed the poor,
to clothe the naked, to help those in distress, to participate in any
good work being done anywhere, and to prevent evil.
For this reason the Messenger (pbuh) said: "Every good deed of a man is
granted manifold increase, ten to seven hundred times. But says Allah:
'Fasting is an exception; it is exclusively for Me, and I reward for it
as much as I wish.' " (Bukhari, Muslim). All good deeds
grow, then, in proportion to both the intention of the doer as well as
their results, but that there is a limit to their growth. Fasting,
however, has no such limit. In Ramadan, in the season for the
flourishing of good and piety, not one but millions of people jointly
water this garden of virtue. The more you sincerely perform good deeds
in this
month and the greater you avail yourselves of its blessings, the more
you sustain the impact of fasting on your life during the subsequent
eleven months, the more will our garden flourish, and flourish without
limit. Should its growth become inhibited, the fault must lie with you.
Where Are The Results?
After snapping the vital links between various parts of Islam and
injecting into it many new things, we cannot expect the same results as
from the whole. A second reason is that we have practically changed the
meaning of lbadah. Many of us believe that mere abstention from food and
drink, from morning till evening, amounts to lbadah; once you do all
these things you have worshipped Allah. A greater majority of the
Muslims is unmindful of the real spirit of Ibadah which should permeate
all our actions. That is why the acts of Ibadah do not produce their
full benefit. For everything in Islam depends on intention and
understanding.
The True Spirit Of Fasting
Essentially every work which we do has two components. The first is its
purpose and spirit; the second, the particular form which is chosen to
achieve that purpose. Take the case of food. Our main purpose in eating
is to stay alive and maintain our strength. The method of achieving this
object is that we take a piece of food, put it in our mouth, chew it and
swallow
it. This method is adopted since it is the most effective and
appropriate one to achieve our purpose. But everyone knows that the main
thing is the purpose for which food is taken and not the form, the act
of eating takes.
How would we react if someone tried to eat a piece of sawdust or cinder
or mud? You would say that he was mad or ill. That he would not have
understood the real purpose of eating and would have erroneously
believed that chewing and swallowing constituted eating. Likewise, we
would also call someone mad who thrust his fingers down his throat to
vomit up the food he had just eaten and then complained that the
benefits said to accrue from taking the food were not being realized.
Rather, on the contrary, he was getting thinner day by day. This person
blames the food for a situation that is due to his own stupidity. Thus
the purpose of eating cannot be achieved by merely fulfilling these
outward actions.
Outward Replaces Real
Perhaps we can now understand why our lbadah has become ineffectual and
empty. The greatest mistake of all is to take the acts of Prayer and
Fasting and their outward shape as the real Ibadah. Otherwise, how can
we explain, that a person who is Fasting, and is thus engaged in the
lbadah of Allah from morning till evening, in the midst of that lbadah,
tells a lie or slanders someone? Why does he quarrel on the slightest
pretext and abuse those he is quarreling with? How dare he encroach on
other people's rights? And how can he claim, having done all these
things, that he has still performed the lbadah of Allah? Does this not
resemble the actions of that person who eats cinders and mud and thinks
that by merely completing the four requirements of eating he has
actually done the job of eating?
How, too, can we claim to have worshipped Allah for many long hours
throughout Ramadan when the impact of this whole exercise in spiritual
and moral upliftment vanishes on the first day of the next month? During
the Id days we do all that pagans do in their festivals, so much so that
in some places we even turn to adultery, drinking and gambling. And I
have seen some degenerates who Fast during the day and drink alcohol and
commit adultery at night. Most Muslims, Alhamdulillah, have not
fallen so low. But how many of us still retain any trace of piety and
virtue by the second day of Id?
The Perspective
This form has been prescribed to create in us such fear of Allah and
love, such strength of will and character, that, even against our
desire, we avoid seemingly profitable things which in fact displease
Allah and do those things which possibly entail risks and losses but
definitely please Allah. This strength can be developed only when we
understand the purpose of Fasting and desire to put to use the training
we have undergone of curbing our physical desires for the fear and love
of Allah only.
Just as the physical strength cannot be obtained from bread until it is
digested, transformed into blood, which spreads through
every vein, so spiritual strength cannot be obtained from Fasting until
the person who keeps the Fast is conscious of its purpose and allows it
to permeate his heart and mind and dominate his thoughts, motives and
deeds.
Fasting As A Way To Piety
This is why Allah, after ordaining fasting, has said that Fasting is
made obligatory on you, so that you may attain to Allah-consciousness.
Note that there is no guarantee that you will definitely become
Allah-conscious and righteous. Only someone who recognizes the purpose
of Fasting and strives to achieve it will receive its blessings; someone
who does not,
cannot hope to gain anything from it.
Conditions Of Fasting
The Messenger (pbuh) has said: "If one does not give up speaking
falsehood and acting by it, Allah does not require him to give up eating
and drinking." (Bukhari). On another occasion, he said: "Many are the
people who Fast but who gain nothing from
their Fast except hunger and thirst; and many are those who stand
praying all night but gain nothing except sleeplessness." (Darimi).
Faith And Self-Scrutiny
The Messenger (pbuh) draws attention toanother aim of Fasting thus:
"Whoever observes the Fast, believing and counting, has
all his past sins forgiven." (Bukhari, Muslim). Believing means that
faith in Allah should remain alive in the consciousness of a Muslim.
Counting means that you should seek only Allah's pleasure, constantly
watching over your thoughts and actions to make sure you are doing
nothing contrary to His pleasure, and trusting and expecting the rewards
promised by Allah and the Messenger. Observing these two principles
brings the rich reward of all our past sins being forgiven. The reason
is obvious: even if we were disobedient, we will have now turned, fully
repentant, to our Master--and "a penitent is like one who has,
as it were, never committed a sin at all" as said the Messenger (pbuh).
Shield Against Sins
The Messenger (pbuh) said: "The Fast is like a shield [for protection
from Satan's attack]. Therefore when one observes the Fast he should
[use this shield and] abstain from quarreling. If anybody quarrels with
him, he should simply say: 'Brother/Sister, I am fasting.'" (Bukhari,
Muslim).
Hunger for Goodness
The Messenger (pbuh) once directed that a man, while Fasting, ought to
do more good works than usual and ardently desire to
perform acts of kindness. Compassion and sympathy for his brothers
should intensify in his heart because, being himself in the throes of
hunger and thirst, he will all the more be able to realize the misery of
other servants of Allah who are destitute. "In Ramadan, whoever provides
food to a person who is Fasting to break that Fast will earn forgiveness
for his sins, deliverance from the Fire and as much reward as the one
who is Fasting, without any reduction in the recompense of the latter."
(Baihaqi).
Abdullah Ibn Abbas said the Messenger (pbuh) used to become unusually
kind and generous during Ramadan. No beggar in that period went
empty-handed from his door, and as many slaves as possible were set
free. (Baihaqi).
By S. A. Mawdudi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
