The month of Ramadan as the holy Prophet of Islam said, is the moth in which we are invited into the feast of Allah.

There is a Narration in which the holy Prophet of Islam said:

There are some breezes from Allah throughout your lifetime. Be aware, make yourselves exposed to them.

It means that throughout our lifetime there are some opportunities given by Allah, if we do not use them properly in fact we have deprived ourselves from the bounties of those opportunities. Among these breezes is the month of Ramadan. There is a likening that can help us so much to be prepared for the feast of Allah i.e. the month of Ramadan. Let’s Imagine that a messenger from one of the greatest kings of the world has come to us and says: The king has invited you to his feast and he has so much attention to you, he wants to give you very precious gifts and governorship of some regions and above all of these honorable gifts the king is so satisfied with you and so eager to see you and get near to you and even wants to assign you as one of his nearest ones, so in this situation what will be our reaction? How can we make ourselves ready for this very important meeting?

Then we must compare the greatness of this king to the King of the kings, the Lord of the lords, the creator of the worlds and everything in them, the one that is the real Owner of everything that is known as a being. Now we refer to the starting part of this essay. We are invited to the feast of Allah. If we really and honestly believe that there is a God and if we believe that the messenger of Allah does not tell any lie, so what is our reaction to the call of the Prophet of Islam on this invitation?

There is an important point here, when we refer to some Narrations that describe the great rewards of some deeds like the rewards of different deeds of the month of Ramadan it might seem unbelievable for some of us or hard to be believed due to the very vast mentioned rewards of them. For example the Narration that says:

Solving a problem of a believer is better (and has more rewards) than releasing one thousand slaves. Another example is the Narration that states:

The rewards of a man that helps his wife in the house, are as this: he will be rewarded per every hair that is in his body, the rewards of one year of worship in which he has fasted all of its days and has worshiped Allah through all of its nights.

There is a story that is so much meaningful and is the answer to this doubt. Because you know that a lot of times just one likening or story can be very helpful. The story is as following:

Once upon a time a king wanted to go to a land in order to conquer that land, in the way he encountered a little boy. The king asked the son: O little son, what is your name? The son replied: My name is Nasr Allah (meaning: the help of Allah). The king got happy and regarded this name as a good omen, and said that we God-willing will be the winner of the war. The king asked the son: Where are you going? The son replied: To the school for learning the Quran. The king asked the son: Which chapter are you learning? The son replied: The chapter of Fath(meaning: victory). The king regarded it as a good omen too and got so happy and gave a small bag of coin to that son as a gift. The son started to cry. The king asked him: Why are you crying? The little son answered: Because when I go back to the home my mother will beat me and will say: You have stolen these coins. The king said: So, say to her that the king has given me these coins. The son replied: She won’t believe my words and will say that if a king wants to give a gift, due to his great position of kingdom he does not present a little thing but rather he gives something that deserves his great position of being a king. So the king got interested by the answer of this little boy and gave him many coins.

Someone might say that this is just a story that it might not be true, but we say that the trueness or falsehood of this story does not harm our intention from narrating this story, because it is a true fact that the gifts of the very generous people are due to their level of generosity.

Now let’s notice to the All-Mighty Allah, the Owner of the worlds, the being that is not in need of anyone or anything, the One that gives sustenance to all beings, the King of the kings, the most generous of all the generous, so it is very natural and usual that such a generous has so much giving, and as much as our Tawhid or believing in the oneness and unity of Allah gets stronger and deeper, the above mentioned doubt gets solved more easily.

The month of Ramadan is a month in which the whole reality of the Quran was descended to the Prophet of Islam in the night of Qadr. There are many benefits, material and spiritual for reciting this book.

So let’s look at some of them.

Imam sadiq peace be upon him said: The Quran is the treaty and covenant of Allah with His creation, so it is appropriate for every Muslim to look at his treaty and recite every day fifty verses.

The holy Prophet of Islam said: The superiority of the Quran over other words is like the superiority of Allah over His servants.

Allah has descended this book in a way that is sufficient for the guidance of mankind till the Day of Judgment.

Of course it must be noted that the holy Prophet of Islam before his departure delivered a sermon which is narrated by both Shia and Sunni schools of thought. The holy Prophet said:

I leave among you two precious things, the book of Allah and my progeny. You will never go astray after me as long as you grasp them. These two never get separated from each other till the day that they enter on me at the Lake-fount (a spring in Paradise).

So we must not be away from the main and basic interpreters of the holy Quran i.e. Imam Ali, Lady Fatimah, and their infallible sons (peace be upon them all).

Nowadays is a time in which different devils try to deviate mankind by their various temptations. The holy Prophet of Islam prescribed a useful solution in those times. He said:

When different tests or seditions encounter you which are like the parts of the dark night, so I advise you (to refer) to the Quran.

In the similar way, the holy Quran describes itself in chapter Ibrahim, verse1:

الَر كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَى صِرَاطِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ

“Aliflaamra. We have sent down to you (this book) in order that you bring mankind from darkness to the light by the permission of your lord, to the path of the almighty, the praised.”

It is good for us to recites the holy Quran in our house because according to the Narrations:

-It causes the blessings of Allah to be increased in the house.

– It causes the angels to be present in our houses.

– It causes the devils to run away from our house.

-The houses in which the Quran is recited, they shine for the inhabitants of the heaven just like the shining of the stars for the inhabitants of the earth.

Reciting the holy Quran is a kind of remembrance of Allah and according to the holy Quran itself in chapter Raad verse 28, by the remembrance of Allah the hearts find peace. So for those who are suffering from different stresses and they are looking for a safe place in order to find tranquility, they can recite the holy Quran.

To be continued.

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Source: howzah.net

The holy Prophet of Islam Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him and his family) delivered a sermon before starting the month of Ramadan, in which he said: “You are invited into the banquet and feast of Allah.”

A question that might arise here is that what is the relation between a feast and hunger and thirst? As you know in this holy month we are ordered (of course by its conditions) to fast i.e. to avoid from some prohibitions like eating or drinking, so what does this feast mean?

Pondering upon this relation is a very interesting subject for those who want to be among the people of ponder who are praised extremely by Islam.

It is appropriate to mention some of the sayings of the scholars in the field of morality in this regard.

The late Mirza Javad Maleki Tabrizi in his honorable book by the name of Al-Moraqibat (the observations) when he wants to describe about the great position of the month of Ramadan, he states:

There are many benefits for hunger for those who want to purify their souls. The All-Mighty Allah in a divine Narration which is called the Narration of Miraj, addressed the Prophet of Islam: O Ahmad, do you know what are the effects of fasting? The holy Prophet replied: No. Allah said: “The result of fasting is to eat and speak little, and this brings wisdom and wisdom brings knowledge and knowledge brings certainty.”

There are different benefits for hunger like:

-The purity of heart.

When a person eats so much, it causes the steams to be increased around the brain and in this state the brain finds a position which somehow is like being drunk, so he/she cannot think properly, but in the state of hunger and not eating so much, it causes the brain to be ready to think more proper and in this state having spiritual relation with God can be deeper and easier.

It must be noted as an important point that when we talk about the importance of hunger in Islamic point of view, it does not mean not to eat anything and being starving and weak and unable to do our daily social and religious duties, but rather it means to be moderate in eating and drinking.

-Breaking extremely the lust and the powers which cause human to commit great sins like adultery.

-Medical benefits.

It is medically undeniable that a lot of diseases are caused by eating and drinking so much.

-Being aware of the state of the needy and poor people.

It is appropriate for the economically ordinary Muslims who fast to think that after some hours of hunger and thirst, they have different foods and drinks, but in the same time there are some people that they hope to have the simplest kinds of foods and drinks but they cannot afford them, so through fasting Muslims can feel and understand the poor better and be motivated to help them.

-Remembering the Day of Judgment.

In the above mentioned sermon of the Prophet of Islam he said:

Remember by your hunger and thirst in this month (the month of Ramadan), the hunger and thirst of the Day of Judgment.

So fasting can help us to remove the veils of negligence and forgetting the hereafter.

Ramadhan has come. Muslims all over the world are fasting from dawn until sunset.

The philosophy of the fast is well-known: It gives the servants of Allah a training in discipline, self-control, unquestioned obedience to God. It cultivates self-denial in Man so that he may be able to understand the problems facing the community and society.

Islam is a religion, compact and well-balanced. It is not just a collection of some unrelated ideologies and traditions. There is good reason behind every enjoinment, every tenet and every precept.

So compact is the whole Islamic system, in fact, that you cannot believe in it piece-meal; you have either to take it in its entirety or leave it in total; you cannot select from it.

Take, for example, the lunar system of the Islamic calendar. Though Islam recognises the solar year for the purpose of Zakat and Khums (agricultural taxes etc.), it insists on following the lunar system, in other matters, like fast and pilgrimage.

Why this double standard? The reason is simple enough. Islam is an universal religion; and the fast and pilgrimage are intended for the whole mankind, wherever they may be living.

And, the fact is one cannot pinpoint a single minute in a whole year which is equally convenient for the whole world.
Season and climate in the northern hemisphere are poles apart, literally, from those of the southern hemisphere.

Distance from the equator creates great differences between the climates of the lands situated in the same hemisphere.

Altitude belies all the theoretical calculations of geographers (the people of Europe did not believe, at first, that there was a snow-capped mountain — Kilimanjaro — near the Equator).

Directions of the mountains make two nearby lands radically opposed to each other in climate (had the Himalayas been created North-South, instead of East West, the cold winds of North would have made the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent a second Tibet). The distance from the sea; the path of the sea-currents; direction of seasonal winds —-all these things have profound effect upon the climate and seasons of a given land.
For example, the Gulf Street, being a hot current, makes countries warm even in Arctic Circle; and Dar es Salaam, being on the sea shore, experiences less temperature changes than the interior regions.

I have described some of the factors which have effect upon the climates and seasons of a particular land. These factors have made the world a museum in which every conceivable kind of climate can be found in one or another corner at every given moment of the year.

Thus, it is just impossible to select a time of the year which can be equally suitable and acceptable to the whole world, for such rules as fasting and pilgrimage.

Had Islam accepted solar calendar for such religious functions it would have done a great injustice to a greater part of the world.
What would have been suitable, for instance, to India, could have been most inconvenient for Africa and/or America.

So, Allah selected a lunar calendar. about ten days than the solar calendar, cycle becomes complete in about 33 years.

As this system is shorter by the seasons rotate in it, and the

Thus a man of about 48 years of age, anywhere in the world, experiences every facility-and every hardship which the climate of his land can offer during Ramadhan.

Thus, nobody is favoured; and nobody is discriminated against.

Likewise, in pilgrimage: If a certain period of solar year would have been fixed, majority of the Muslims would have found themselves unable to go to Mecca. A farmer, in whose region it would have been cultivating or harvesting time, could never go to Hajj. Neither could a civil servant whose holidays did not coincide with the pilgrimage period. But, in a lunar system, the farmer can wait until the rotation of the seasons brings the Hajj in his off-season; and the civil servant can wait until it falls in his holiday time.

It is just one example of what I had said earlier — Islam is a compact unit in which every part has the utmost significance for other parts.

Pilgrimage, fast, lunar calendar, universality of Islam, equality of its followers in every respect in the eyes of God— these things may seem unrelated to each other to a layman. But, in fact, they are closely knit together and none of them can be neglected or torn without destroying the whole fabric.

During Ramadhan, Muslims abstain from eating and drinking, sexual relations and such things. A Shia Ithna-Asheri has to abstain, in addition, from putting his head in water and from speaking a lie, however immaterial, about God, prophets, Imams and Bibi Fatima, the daughter of the Holy Prophet.
But it is only the external part of the fast. The soul and spirit of fast is something deeper. This aspect of the fast can very easily be explained in the words of our sixth Imam, Ja´far as-Sadiq (a. s.).

He said: “Your fast day should not be like ordinary days. When you fast, all your senses —. eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet — must fast with you. ” How can these organs fast?

Eyes: Keep your eyes off unlawful things and objects; spend this most precious gift of God in good causes and pious acts; read the Qur’an, Duas, and books of knowledge.

Ears: Abstain from hearing unlawful gossip, lies, false statements, music and obscene topics; pay attention towards sermons and topics of learning.

Tongue: Do not tell lies or useless tales, do not spread rumours, and do not indulge in damaging gossip about other persons; keep aloof from falsity. Use the power of speech in spreading the word of God, in creating good will in the society.

Hands: Do not inflict injury upon others by your actions; instead strive to help them as far as possible.

Feet: Do not go towards, forbidden places, like bars and cinemas. Do not run between people creating strife. Go towards those places where God is remembered; and where you can find the means to purify your soul. And, above all, your heart and your mind must be with you in fasting. Because fast, in its real sense, will remain incomplete unless your thoughts, your emotions, your actions — in short, all aspects of your life — become pure, clean and free from blemish.

Thus, the fast should create in us an instinctive obedience to the Law of God.

I have heard about some people thinking that the fast of Ramadhan was not meant for the 20th century; or that the factory workers should be exempted from this obligation.

I think such big-headed persons are really in need of fasting more than anybody else. I mean, if a Muslim is unruly enough to disobey the commands of God, he should be made to fast so that he can acquire the habit of unquestioned obedience to God.

Such persons are the fittest candidates for fasting. They must read the commandments of Qur’an,

“O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you. . . . . .that ye may (learn) self-restraint …” (Qur’an, 2:183).

Self-restraint, piety, sympathy and purity of soul; these are the fruits of fasting. Let us strive to achieve as much benefit as we can from this Holy Month of God.

Source: Fast; written by Allamah Sayyid Sa’eed Akhtar Rizvi