Keeping the results of the month of ramadan-2

The month of Ramadan is a month which is full of blessings and bounties. Through this holy month we can obtain many good results. Every good thing has a kind of slump which threatens it. We must be aware not to remove the good effects of a deed. So the question is how can we keep the result of this holy month?

When we look at the holy Quran we see that Allah explicitly mentioned the reason of issuing the decree of fasting. He said in chapter Bagharah verse 183:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

“Believers, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you; perchance you will be cautious.”

According to this verse we can reach through fasting to the great position of Taqwa and God-fearing. Tawqa means to prefer the will of our Lord and Creator over our will. It means to avoid from committing sins. In this holy month because of the order of Allah, we avoided from some prohibited and Haram things and even some things which in their innate nature are not prohibited, like eating but in the other months, we are ordered just to avoid from prohibited things.

There are some ways in order to obtain the position of Taqwa, like:

-Strengthening our religious beliefs.

We can do that by pondering on different signs of Allah and different reliable religious teachings.

-Knowing the Islamic rulings.

If we do not know the obligations and prohibitions of Allah and different kinds of sins, so observing the concept of Taqwa cannot be done completely.

-Practicing

Obtaining every skill needs practice. We must not get disappointed if we see that sometimes we could not observe Taqwa. We must not expect to obtain the position of Taqwa overnight; we must try little by little to obtain this honorable skill.

-Participation in the religious sessions and having connection with the believers and scholars or reading the books which are written about the lives of the great pious individuals can be so useful.

-Knowing Satan.

You know that Satan and his army have different kinds of temptations and traps, sometimes a deed is not Haram in its innate nature, but it can lead us to the commitment of a sin and disobedience of Allah. So in fact that deed can be a trap from devils.

-Knowing the features of the people of Taqwa.

There are many verses of the Quran and various Narrations of the Infallibles that describe the features of the pious people. The most famous source in this regard is the sermon of Hammad in the book of Nahj Al-Balagha in which Imam Ali peace be upon him described different features of the pious people to one of his companions by the name of Hammam. It is so useful for us to read it and try to implement these features in our lives of course little by little, because if we want to force ourselves to practice all of those features as soon as possible it might lead us to lose eagerness to the religious matters.

In the holy month of Ramadan we went under the flag of Allah, so in the other months we must try not to go anywhere else. In this month we were presented Taqwa as a gift of Allah, of course Taqwa has different levels. The one who is under the flag of Allah is definitely helped by Allah in this world and in the hereafter, because Allah Himself mentioned in the Quran in chapter room verse 47:

وَكَانَ حَقًّا عَلَيْنَا نَصْرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And it was an incumbent duty upon us to give victory to the believers.”

And at the time of difficulties, Allah rescues the believers as He said in chapter Yunos verse 103:

ثُمَّ نُنَجِّي رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كَذَلِكَ حَقًّا عَلَيْنَا نُنجِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“Then we shall save our messengers and the believers. It is our obligated duty, we shall save those who believe.”