Ramadan 1441 A.H. is here! Are you prepared?
Here comes the month of Ramadan; the month of fasting! Today is 24 Shaaban 1441 AH. Are you all set for it? Are you prepared for this holy month? Though this year’s fasting is coming at a time there are lockdown against the spread of COVID-19 across the country, we all know for certain that […]
Here comes the month of Ramadan; the month of fasting! Today is 24 Shaaban 1441 AH. Are you all set for it? Are you prepared for this holy month? Though this year’s fasting is coming at a time there are lockdown against the spread of COVID-19 across the country, we all know for certain that there can be no restrictions against observance of our duties to Him, the Almighty. The believer cannot be ‘isolated’ from his Creator. Remember when Ibn Taimiyyah found himself in “isolation”, he proclaimed as follows: “My enemies are at a loss as to what to do with me: (this is because) my paradise is here in my heart; my garden of bliss is in my bosom; …my imprisonment is seclusion with my Lord; through my death, I achieve martyrdom and when they exile me, I am on tourism”.
Thus, while there may be restrictions against movement, while our cities may be under lockdown, let us lock ourselves up with our Creator. One way to begin to do that is to prepare properly for this year’s fasting, to maximize the opportunities afforded us by government to stock up and obtain the necessities ahead of Ramadan. We should not wait for the eleventh hour before beginning preparation for this all-important spiritual duty. If the crescent for the month of Ramadan takes eleven months before it appears, it means we should not wait till it is twenty-four hours to its appearance before we begin to prepare for our fasting exercise.
Are you all set for fasting this year? Your response should be in the negative particularly if you owe your Creator or your brother an obligation since last year without fulfilling it. In other words, one way to properly prepare for the coming Ramadan is for you discharge all obligations, the spiritual, the social, the economic, the cultural and even the political before this year’s fasting. Not to do that is to become a student who proceeds to the examination hall with “forbidden documents and materials”.
In other words, dear brethren, a wrong way to prepare for Ramadan is to have unresolved disputes with your fellow Muslim brethren. Since Ramadan is, first of all, a spiritual exercise before being a communal or social one, since the locale of the spiritual is the human soul – the heart, and since anger, animosity, envy, hatred and all ill-feelings are diseases which assail the heart, corrupt it and render it unsuitable for spiritual re-awakening, it then becomes highly important that we empty our hearts of all these “spiritual viruses”. Thus, dear brother, endeavour to settle all existing disputes and issues with your fellow human beings, Muslims, Christians, and the other before the onset of Ramadan. Remember, dear Sister, that you should not expect your supplications to be granted while you unjustly sit on the right or rights of your neighbour, your sub-ordinates in the office, or even that of your husband and children. “Return the trusts to their owners…” that is the injunction of the Almighty in the Qur’an. Not to do this is to prepare wrongly for the coming Ramadan.
Brethren, one other way by which a Muslim could prepare inappropriately for Ramadan is to leave a threat to his health unattended to. Since Ramadan is a month of action, it is incumbent on every mature Muslim who knows and believes that fasting is obligatory on him to seek every lawful means by which he/she would be in the best state of health before it begins.
Brethren! Let us prepare for the month of Ramadan by asking the Almighty to forgive us and redeem our leaders in this country. In an hadith reported by al-Tabrani and which is classified as hasan by al-Albani, the Prophet is reported to have said: “Whoever seeks forgiveness for believing men and believing woman, the Almighty will write for him a good deed for each believing man and believing woman.”