“O’ Ramadan, what a great school you are? Here to be with us, to teach us the personality of the people of Paradise.”

Ramadan – The leader of the months

Ramadan comes but once a year. It is the leader over all the other months. The last 10 nights of Ramadan are the best nights of the year, and within these, the odd nights are better than the even, and from the odd nights, the best night is Laylat al‐Qadr – which is better than a thousand months, better than 84 years and 3 months, better than a lifetime.

Ramadan is the month when Muhammad son of Abdullah became Muhammadur Rasulullah (ﷺ); the mercy to the world and the Seal of the Prophets. That momentous moment when the heavenly realm became connected to the earthly sphere and when the Qur’an was revealed down to the world. Ramadan is the month where reward is multiplied many times over, the doors of Paradise are open and the doors of Hell are closed and it brings numerous opportunities to gain the forgiveness of Allah and attain the emancipation from the Fire of Hell. Such is the value and excellence of the month, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to prepare and plan for it two months before it arrived. He used to supplicate:

“O Allah! Bless us in Rajab and Sha’ban, and bring us to Ramadan.” [Ahmad]

Ramadan is an opportunity to gain salvation

The month of Ramadan is but mercy and blessing from Allah. Allah is looking for ways to forgive His servants. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“Whoever fasts[¹] Ramadan with faith and seeks Allah’s pleasure and reward will have his previous sins forgiven.” [Tirmidhi]

“When Ramadan commences, the gates of Paradise are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are bound in chains.” [Muslim]

Ramadan is the time where the opportunities to do good is increased, and the avenues to committing sins are decreased. The Shayateen are locked and the fast itself acts as a further shield against committing sins. The month is thereby a rich field for cultivating righteous conduct. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“No servant fasts on a day in the path of Allah except that Allah removes the hellfire seventy years further away from his face.” [Muslim]

By the end of the month of Ramadan, by the will of Allah, He will take our face so far away from the heat of the Fire as if we were entering through the gate of Ar‐Rayyan into Paradise itself. What an amazing opportunity we have before us this blessed month?

Ramadan is an opportunity to excel in goodness

Allah being Allah, the All-Just and eternally Merciful further wants His servants to excel in ranks, as He does not want to see them in the Hell Fire. He therefore increased the reward of righteous deeds:

“The optional good deeds in this month shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time.” [Ibn Khuzaymah]

And for fasting itself, Allah Says:

“Every action of the Son of Adam is for himself except fasting, for that is solely for Me and I alone will reward it.”[Muslim]

Allah did not disclose the amount He will give his servant which could be anything from x70 to x700 and much much more. Fasting carries such great reward because it is a deeply personal worship, no one knows whether a person is fasting or not, except Allah. For example, when someone is praying or giving charity or making Tawaaaf, he can be seen by the people, so he might do the action seeking the praise of the people, however fasting is a secret between the fasting person and Allah. Allah may look at your fast and your sincerity and decide that I have forgiven my servant. His mercy encompasses all things so if He chooses, He can forgive you.

Then we have Laylat Al-Qadr in the latter nights of  Ramadan. A night like no other – a night with no equal. Divine Speech informs us: 

“Indeed We have revealed this (Qur’an) in the night of Qadr. And what will make you understand, what the night of Qadr is? The night of Qadr is better than one thousand months.” [Al-Qadr: 97:1-3]

One single night – better than 30 such nights and then multiplied a thousand fold. Subhanallah!  To put this into context, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “The ages of (the people in) my nation will be between sixty and seventy, and few of them will exceed that.” [Sunan Ibn Majah] For one night of worship, Allah is offering us a lifetime’s worth of reward of someone who lived for 83 years and 4 months in the continuous worship of Allah. Therefore, every good deed done in this night is valued immensely and is rewarded more than the same good deed done continuously for a thousand months and more… What can you say to that! Allah is All-Kareem (Most Generous), He is not like us. His generosity is sublime and infinite.

May Allah grant us the Tawfiq to spend the last 10 nights of Ramadan in worship. May Allah accept from us no matter how little will perform. 

Ramadan is an opportunity to have our supplication answered

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“A fasting person will not have his supplications rejected until he breaks his fast.”[At‐Tirmidhi]

In Surah Al-Baqarah, in the verses relating to fasting. Allah mentions from verses 183-185 that fasting is prescribed as an obligation, that the revelation of the Qur’an and fasting in the month of Ramadan are intricately linked. Then a pause. In verse 187, Allah continues with the theme of Ramadan and mentioned nights of the month of fasting month and timings of fasting. Sandwiched in between these verses is verse 186 which reads: 

“When my servants ask you about Me,  verily, I am close. I answer the prayer of every supplicant when he calls upon Me; therefore, they should respond to Me and put their trust in Me, so that they may be rightly guided.” [Al-Baqarah: 2:186]

Allah is always close to His devotees, but more so in this month. Allah addresses the Prophet (ﷺ)  here: “When My servants ask you about Me.” It should then read, “tell them, I am close”. Instead, He did not instruct the Prophet (ﷺ) to tell the believers that “He is close”, rather, He replied directly in the first person pronoun. “Verily I am close and I answer the prayer of every supplicant when he calls upon Me.”  There is no intermediaries in between – “it’s Me and My servant”.

Look also to the choice of words. Allah says: “When My servants ask you about Me.” He chose “My servants” over “the servants”. This is a possessive construct – it refers to closeness and belonging. Allah has selected them and He ascribed them to Himself. Thereafter, we see “about Me” as opposed to “about Allah”. To use the pronoun “me” to identify oneself suggests there is an already established relationship. When people know each other, there is no need for introduction and formality – ”it’s me” suffices. There is intimacy and gentleness between the two parties. The servants of Allah know Allah and thus sought Him and placed their needs before Him. Ramadan is then centred around knowing Allah and thereafter making supplications. The more one knows Allah, the more he will call upon Him. 

Ramadan is an opportunity to know Allah

Allah has made fasting in the month of Ramadan obligatory for all believers. He says in the Qur’an:

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may learn Taqwa.”[Al Baqarah:2:183]

Taqwa is the conscious awareness that Allah is aware of all that we do. Ramadan teaches us  how to behave before Allah. It teaches us about ourselves in relation to our Creator and Sustainer. By abstaining from food and drink we see our weakness and needs, had Allah not provided us with a meal at Iftar then we would know the true meaning of weakness. By being weak in the body, our soul is more receptive to Allah and His Greatness. Ramadan gives us the space to contemplate and think of our neediness of Allah. It reveals how truly dependent we are upon our Lord Who is free from all wants and needs. When we recognise His attributes of Lordship and our lowly attribute of dependants, we become grateful. We show gratitude by abiding with what pleases Him and staying away from what displeases Him.

Ramadan is an opportunity to show our love for Allah

Allah says in Hadith Qudsi:

“My servant draws  not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the obligation I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with optional extra works so that I shall love him.” [Bukhari]

Each day of fasting and five daily prayers is making us draw closer to Allah. And when we push and exert ourselves further with extra works of night prayer, Dhikr, Qur’an recitation, serving others and enjoining and spreading goodness. It opens us to be receptive of Allah’s love. When love is present, a person seeks every opportunity to be in the service of the beloved. Imagine that he was in love with Allah,  nothing in his heart would compete with his love of Allah for He is the greatest love to be had. If He found Allah, his heart would be overflowing by the thought of Him. As the poet said:

“The love of Allah has captivated my core; the mere mention of His name soothes my heart,

And knowing His mention of me mentioning Him makes me joyous despite my unworthiness to be mentioned. 

I long with desire to see Him in my nights… but I must wait for tomorrow to appear in full glory.

Sufficient for me now knowing He sees me and He is with me wherever I maybe.”

Love requires on our part to be familiarised with what our beloved wants from us. We then sacrifice what we desire in order to seek the pleasure of what our beloved desires. And fasting is our demonstration that we are eager to please Allah. We forsake the forbidden; we sacrifice the permissible and even our free time to gain the pleasure of Allah. We elevate ourselves beyond the ranks of the Angels who worship as part of their nature, they do not eat, drink, sleep or have relations where as we do. We must constantly struggle against our lower selves to worship Allah, suffer from the pangs of hunger and thirst, deprive ourselves the comfort of our bed and forsake our sleep in the night, combat against laziness and stand tall in Tarawee, overcome self interest and become generous and fight the urges spending time with the spouse during the day. And so we supersede the Angels in our worship to gain Allah’s pleasure and so he will boast to the angels, that “My servant is relentless in my worship, he fasts during the day, and he prays during the evening, he does not eat, drink or engage in other permissible acts for My sake”. Thus Allah says: “Fasting is for Me and I reward it.” [Bukhari]

In Summary

Ramadan is a unique month of fasting that has only been prescribed to this Ummah alone. It is the month of the Qur’an, the month of Itikaf (seclusion), the month of standing (in prayer), the month of generosity, the month of devotion, the month of forgiveness, the month of mercy, the month of sacrifice , the month of patience, the month of self‐control, the month of unity, the month of seeking nearness with Allah and the month with the night of al–Qadr. It comes but once a year, so welcome the leader of the month and embrace it with open arms and a sound heart.

Let us show Allah goodness from ourselves, let us not be amongst those whom Angel Jibreel said “May their face be rubbed in dust for those who found Ramadan and could not atone forgiveness,” to which the Prophet (ﷺ) said ‘Ameen’. Let us be the ones who take advantage of Ramadan knowing that Allah is waiting to communicate with us through our Salah and our recitation of the Qur’an, to shower us with blessing, answer our supplication, to grant upon us forgiveness and save us from the fire and admit us to the Garden of Delight. May Allah make us find Laylat Al-Qadr this Ramadan so we achieve a lifetime’s reward. May He make this Ramadan be the vehicle that lets us gather on the Day of Increase and to see His Face in full Glory rejoicing at the sight of our Lord. 

[1] – The definition of fasting: Fasting is the abstention from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse from dawn until the setting of the sun, with the intention to observe the third pillar of Islam.