The Holy Month of Ramadan is here! (III)
Continues from last week 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, […]
Continues from last week
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 she would be in the best state of health before it begins. Such a Muslim could go for a medical check-up. A Muslim who knows he is at the risk of contracting ulcer would be doing wrong preparation for Ramadan by engaging in supererogatory fasting before Ramadan. Remember, all other fasts aside from Ramadan are supererogatory not obligatory: whereas you would not be punished for not fasting in the month of Sha’aban, to intentionally skip Ramadan fast is haraam.
Brethren, it is implicit in what we have mentioned so far the positive ways by which we can prepare for the coming Ramadan. Let us prepare for the month 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.”
Brethren let us begin an act of worship before Ramadan which we would then increase as soon as the blessed month begins; an act of worship that would then become our own wadhifah, a regular spiritual exercise. The Prophet says: “The deeds most loved by Almighty are those done regularly, even if they are small.” For example, if you are the type who always prays two supererogatory prayers after Salat al-Ishaa, you could begin by adding extra two with the intention of asking the Almighty to help you prepare for the coming month so that you can exert your utmost and reap the highest available rewards during the month. In other words, intensify your acts of worship as rehearsals for acts that would peak during the month. What this means indirectly is that you are planning ahead for the month; you are already in the spiritual mood; the mood that would see you finish the reading and contemplation of the glorious Qur’an at least once during the month; that mood that would see you attend the tafsir sessions; that mood that would see you avoid all vain talks, indecencies and the muharramat (unlawful things) and permanently too. In this mood, you would envision yourself as if you are already standing up for judgement in front of the Almighty; you are there in front of Him, all alone, without your loved ones. On that day your money and your status have become (and will become) useless. The only friend you will have on that day is your acts of worship: the salat you observed at the right time, the indecency you shunned even when you were all alone with that “babe” in your office, the smile you put on the face of that neighbor of yours who was in distress, the contract you won and which you conscientiously executed, the duties you discharged for your parent. Each of this act that you do before Ramadan would put you in the “Ramadan mood”. You would be happy to “meet” with Ramadan and it would be happy to meet with you.
What is axiomatic in the above is that one important way to prepare for the coming Ramadan way is to assume that the coming Ramadan would be the last for you. As you are reading this, a soul is departing this world; moments before the onset of Ramadan, some creatures of the Almighty would transit to the great beyond. Muadh b. Jabal was in the presence of the Prophet one day when the latter asked: where are the believers in this assemblage? All the companions said: we are all believers. Then the Prophet asked: what is the evidence for your faith? Muadh b. Jabal said: “A pointer to my belief is that each time I take a step while walking I am certain that I may not be alive to take the next step”. What a credo? What an ideology? Here Muadh is instructing me and you as follows: Some people would not witness the Ramadan of this year even though they desire it. Will this be our last Ramadan? Though we live with the certainty of the uncertain; the certainty of death whose time is uncertain, let us therefore prepare for the uncertain by doing that which is certain: righteous deeds.
Concluded