Alhamdulillah, the blessed month of Ramadhan has begun, and this is a wonderful month to help us purify ourselves. We are living in a difficult world, full of distractions and temptations, but this month is God’s month. And Allah, the One God, has made it very clear that He has given us 11 months for ourselves, but this one month is for Allah. This month we should strive to win the blessings and mercy of Allah and develop our righteousness.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
When Ramadhan comes, the doors of heaven are opened, and the doors of hell are closed and the devils are put under chains.
It means that as we are striving to fast for Allah’s sake and doing it purely for Him, therefore, we will not be tempted to go against Allah. The evil influences will not affect us.
The Holy Qur’an relates in Chapter 2, verse 184:
O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil.
As the verse of the Holy Qur’an relates, that the main purpose of Fasting is to attain righteousness. It is important for us to understand that we should not just go through the motions of going without food and drink and believe that this is ALL that is expected from us. We have to understand the real spirit behind fasting is to purify ourselves and attain Allah’s Mercy and Love. We should look at this opportunity to develop a high standard of righteousness and then keep to it throughout the year.
Fasting has always been a spiritual way of development in every religion, but only Islam attaches so much importance that a whole month has been set aside for it.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has informed us:
Whoso fasts in the month of Ramadhan out of faith and hoping for a reward, all his past minor sins will be forgiven
It is important that we fast properly. It is not just giving up food and drink, in fact, that is only a small part of fasting. We should be spending all our time striving to please Allah. We should attend as many prayers as we can in congregation, either at the Mosque, Salat Centre, or at least in our own homes. We should read that Holy Qur’an with translation and ponder over its meaning. And we should remove any bad thoughts or actions from us. If we do all these things, then we can say we have fasted.
Hence why the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:
He who abstains from food and drink during the period of the fast, but does not restrain himself from offering a falsehood, starves himself to no purpose
If we do not purify ourselves as well as fast, then we are not achieving anything, likewise, if a Muslim fasts for the whole month and then reverts back to not worshiping Allah, then what has he achieved?
Therefore, we should look at this blessed month as a means to get closer to Allah and become a better person.
One of the great blessings of fasting is that it is a means for the expiation of sins. When a person fasts, then they are striving to purify themselves and it is in fact this inner purification which is the whole purpose of Ramadhan.
This should be our goal during this Ramadhan to cleanse ourselves of any weaknesses, so that we can strive forward pure, ready to keep striving to attain the blessings of Allah. True repentance will enable us to obtain that nearness to Allah.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah & Imam Mahdi has said:
Repentance, in reality, is a source of great help for the attainment of high morals. And it makes a man perfect, for a person who wants to bring about a change in his morals and perform good deeds; he must repent with a true heart.
There are 3 conditions for repentance:
- Get rid of evil thoughts which cause evil actions
- Show remorse, you must regret any weakness that has caused sin and evil actions
- You must have a firm resolve that you will not commit the sin again.
If a person adheres to this resolve, God will bestow upon him the strength for true repentance.
This final condition is very important, it should never be just lip service, that you ask for forgiveness, but you have no intention of stopping the sin. How can you expect Allah, who knows what is in your heart, to accept your forgiveness, if you are not sincere?
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah has also said:
Cleanse your actions and be ever occupied with the remembrance of Allah and do not become heedless. Forever keep repentance alive and never let it die. The weapons through which we are going to achieve success are:
Istighfar (seeking forgiveness), Taubah (repentance), knowledge of faith, keeping the greatness of God in our mind and offering the 5 daily prayers regularly. Salat (Prayer) is the key to the acceptance of prayers. When you offer the Salat, make your prayers and requests during it, safeguard yourself from every evil.
Fasting is accepted by Allah only when we keep control of ourselves. If we do, then we can get nearer to Paradise and Satan will have no effect over us. Therefore, fasting for the sake of Allah leads a believer to goodness and helps him shun evil.
During this month we should keep ourselves pure and restrain from doing anything unIslamic. We have a month to develop this good habit, then we should continue doing these good habits that have been developed during this blessed month throughout the year.
The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 3, verses 134-135 relate:
And hasten towards forgiveness from your Lord, and the Paradise whose value is the heavens and the earth. It is prepared for the God-fearing. Those who spend in prosperity and adversity, and those who suppress anger, and pardon men: and Allah loves those who do good.
These verses explain how we can attain Paradise. We should keep striving to attain Paradise by seeking forgiveness and that paradise can be attain not only in heaven but also on earth. Through striving to attain Allah’s Nearness, and doing good, we can find peace with Allah in this life as well as the next life.
The verse then goes on to say:
“Those who spend in prosperity and adversity”
During Ramadhan great sacrifices are made, giving up food and drink, which helps us to understand how people in adversity are coping. This is an important lesson we learn in Islam that whatever our condition is, whether good or bad, we should strive to win Allah’s blessings.
The verse then continues:
“and those who suppress anger, and pardon men; and Allah loves those who do good.”
This is another benefit of fasting, that it helps us to suppress our anger.
That the whole reason why you are fasting is for Allah, therefore, all your thoughts should be directed to Allah and in this way you will quickly discard any impure thought. Allah inform us that we should always remain in control of ourselves, we should not lose our temper, even if someone is abusing us, we should say ‘I am fasting’. This then brings our mind back to Allah and helps us to control ourselves.
The next part is ‘and pardon men’, we tend to hold grudges and that can destroy relationships whereas here we are told to exercise the quality of ‘Afw, which means to not only forgive the person, but to forget what happened and move on. To pardon someone, doesn’t mean to constantly bring it up again or to just say mere words. Instead, Allah wants us to forget the wrong that has been committed, forgive the person and develop a friendship with the person, for Allah’s sake.
Islam teaches us that we should make up within three days. Otherwise, the dispute will fester and destroy not only you, but others will also be affected. Therefore, in this blessed month, try to pardon men, forgive and forget and develop a good warm brotherhood/sisterhood - Love for All, Hatred for none.
Finally, the verse finishes with “And Allah loves those who do good”.
During the blessed month of Ramadhan, we should be constantly striving to do good, for the sake of Allah, seeking His reward and not for any other reason.
These three stages of ‘Afw has been lovely demonstrated by Hassan, son of Hazrat Ali, Grandson of the Holy Prophet. It is related that once he had a slave who did something which greatly annoyed Hassan. Hassan went to punish him, but then the slave recited the first part, “those who suppress anger”. When Hassan heard this, he restrained his anger and cooled down. But then the slave continued and said, “and pardon men”.
When Hassan was reminded of this part, he straightaway pardoned him.
The slave then continued and recited “and Allah loves those who do good”.
On hearing this Hassan smiled and submitted to this Divine Command and set his slave free.
This is the blessed month to strive to do good. We should take full advantage of this blessed month and try to purify ourselves. We should keep away from foul talk and instead spend our time reading the Holy Qur’an, remembering Allah, worshiping in the Mosque, spending more time with the family and bringing them for the Prayers. But most importantly, strive to do good.