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Ramadan
The ninth month of the Islamic calender is
called "Ramadan" and it is the most meritorious month of
the whole year. Since there are many specific rules
peculiar to this month, we would like to deal with its
characteristics in a rather detailed manner under
different sections.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAMADAN
The Holy Qur'an has expressly told us that
the basic objective for which man is created by Allah is
that he "worships" Him: "And I did not create Jinn and
human beings except that they should worship
Me."
The word used by the Holy Qur'an for the
worship is "ibadah" which has a much wider sense than
"worship". In English, the word "worship" normally
indicates to some specific acts or rituals meant
exclusively to show one's reverence to his Creator. But
the word 'ibadah' is not restricted to such acts or
rituals, rather, it embodies any act done in submission
to Allah's commands and to seek His pleasures. Therefore,
many acts which seem to be mundane in nature are included
in the word of 'ibadah' like earning one's livelihood
through halal (permissible) means and in order to fulfill
one's obligations towards his dependants.
However, 'ibadah' is of two kinds. At the
first place there are acts meant exclusively to worship
Allah, having no worldly objective, like Salah, fasting
etc. These are direct acts of ibadah' while the other
kind of 'ibadah' includes the acts which are primarily
mundane, but they are converted into an 'ibadah' when
they are performed in full conformity with Shari'ah and
with an intention to discharge one's obligations.
Therefore, these acts are treated as "ibadah' in an
indirect manner. It is obvious that the direct acts of
"ibadah' should be superior to the indirect
ones.
Now, while prescribing very few acts of
direct 'ibadah' in one's daily life, like the salah which
is performed five times a day. Islam has left its
followers mostly with the indirect acts of 'ibadah' like
eating, drinking, earning the livelihood and association
with one's wife, children, parents, relatives, friends
and other human beings. But the primary nature of these
acts being mundane, one becomes so absorbed in their
worldly pleasures that their material aspects prevail on
their spiritual aspect- Therefore, these acts have less
spiritual strength than the direct acts of
worship.
Since the direct acts of 'ibadah' are very
few in one's daily life as compared to the indirect ones,
his spiritual progress becomes slow visa, vis his
material progress. The month of Ramadan has been designed
to maintain a balance between material and spiritual
aspects of the human life. This month is meant to
maximize the direct acts of 'ibadah' and to minimize the
pure mundane activities, so that one may accelerate his
spiritual progress to make up the distance and to repair
the spiritual loss one may have suffered through his deep
involvement in the mundane activities during the year.
The days of Ramadan are designed to keep fast which is an
act of 'ibadah' for the whole day, and depriving oneself
from any material food for many hours, it lessens the bad
spiritual effects, if any, of the material pleasures. The
nights of Ramadan, on the other hand, are spent in
offering Tarawih and waking up for Tahajjud and Suhur,
reducing the time of one's sleep much less than in the
normal days. Moreover, apart from the prescribed acts ef
worship, one is supposed to offer as much optional (Nafl)
'ibadah' in this month as he can. In this way the level
of one's spiritual activities in this month is raised up
much higher than in other days of the year.
This philosophy of the month of Ramadan
makes it clear that this month should be devoted to the
direct acts of worship as far as possible. That is why
the reward of the virtuous acts in this month has been
multiplied. This is to encourage the Muslims to the
maximum possible acts of 'ibadah'.
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