Glory be unto Allah, the Lord of
the worlds. We thank Him for His
grace and mercy having to
witness another Ramadan.
Whosoever Allah guides cannot
be misled and whoseoever Allah
misleads cannot be guided. I bear
witness that there is no god
except Allah with no associate
and Muhammad is His prophet.
May the peace and blessings
continue to abide with Prophet
Muhammad (s.a.w).
Allah has assigned to us the
season of goodness in which the
rewards for good deeds are not
only in multiple folds but also the
bad deeds are blooted out. In it,
there are opportunities for
repentance and forgiveness.
Whoever uses the time to purify
himself will be spiritually
cleansed; he will attain success in
this world and hereafter. That is
one of the blessings of Allah in
the month of Ramadan.
Ramadan is a pillar of Islam in
which the Glorious Qur’an was
revealed. In the month, we have a
night that is better than a
thousand months. It means
fasting in Ramadan is equvalent
to fasting in 10 months. This is
also not to mention the blooting
out of sins of a repentant Muslim.
It is a period of worship during the
day and better part of the night.
We were created to worship Him
alone. Obedience to His
ordernances is as important as
worshipping Him. One of the
greatest act of worship is fasting
in the month of Ramadan as He
commanded us in Quran 2:
183-185.
But why do we have to fast?
According to the above verses of
the Qur’an, Allah enjoined us to
fast so that we can gain piety
(taqwa). Any one who is able to
gain more taqwa will intensify in
other acts of worship; will shun or
think less of this material world;
will always do what is good, kind
to people irrespective of class or
creed and will gain nearness to
Allah. That is the quintessence of
fasting.
In doing this, we also need to
know what we should do and
what we should refrain from in
this glorious month.
Fasting is not only about
abstinence from food and drink,
but also going closer to Allah by
doing what you are enjoined to
do and shunning those things that
will vitiate your fast and render
the whole exercise useless.
Come to think of it, what is the
need to deny yourself from the
food and pleasure of life, feeling
the pangs of hunger and yet with
the availability of food or the
means to get same, you chose to
fast only to be rendered useless
on account of ignorance or sheer
negligence.
One of the virtues of fasting
reported in an authentic hadith is
that Allah has chosen for Himself
and will reward without measure
is fasting. “Except for fasting
which is for my sake, I will reward
greatly.” Fasting is one of the
greatest deed Allah required from
us even with promise that the
supplication of a fasting person
will not go unanswered.
The fasting person will also have
the privileged of intercession by
his fast on the day of judgement.
A sahee hadith says: “O’ Lord, I
prevented him from his food and
physical desires during the day,
so, let me interceed for him.”
Fasting is also a strong protection
and a fortress that keeps a
person safe from hell fire. One
hadiths clearly says that whoever
fasts one day for the sake of
Allah, allah will move his face
from a distance of seventy years
from fire.