By | Mudasir Ahmad
We must wake up our inner conscience in this holy month of Ramadan in which we should adhere to prayers in day and day out to attain piety for refreshing our Emaan and to get rewards and divinely blessings from prayers which would salvage us from the Hell fire on the resurrection day.
We Muslims get a lot of blessings and rewards from the almighty Allah on the basis of good deeds which we perform selflessly. Amongst them Some specific deeds are to be performed in ordained times and days as well as in months such as Fasting in Ramadan, Giving alms (Fitrah) to poorer, destitute and needy before Eid-ul-Fitur, and Performing Hajj and Scarifying animals on Eid-ul-Azha are the acts of worship to please Allah. In the holy book of Muslims Al Quran where Allah addresses at various places just awakening us to perform more and more deeds for getting maximum rewards and not to turn away from me. One of the one verses wherein Allah addresses that he created only Jinns and Humans except they worship him. There was a reason when Allah has planned to create the Caliph on earth by convening a meeting with the angels before sending him on earth and meanwhile, he had started creating him and sent him down on the earth. In this universe Allah has promulgated the top most creature amongst all is Adam (Insaan) and Allah has entrusted him with many responsibilities. It covers all his life preparing ingredients which he has to perform in this world till the last breath. With this he can acknowledge himself to a greater extent whether it comes to the matter of prayer, helping others in times of bad situations, doing justices and unraveling issues with others of any type in the face of one’s life. It enables us to achieve close proximity to Allah. It is by far good deeds seemingly purifying our heart with time and saves us from bad evils. It prepares us to have strong faith in Allah. Bad deeds make our heart dirty and subsequently taking rust over it which therefore stray us away from the right path towards Allah.
Fasting in the holy month of Ramadan is considered a type of practice in Islam of doing good deeds so that eventually we can get Taqwa from it. This course of fasting lasts for one month and it has its own scheduled time to come as per the Islamic calendar. On fasting we stop from having day meals, similarly we stop Drinking, Eating or anything which can break our fast. We must eschew from many other things like talking unnecessarily with others, abusing to anyone, arguing with others, behaving ignorantly and as such, while we are fasting. This month has plenty of benefits on Muslims. There is a verse in Surat al-Baqarah in related to this month of Ramadan wherein Allah addresses us: O you believe fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you that you may become righteous. We perform this practice physically in which we forsake all those things which could break our fast but these kinds of devotional practices could enlighten our inner soul and increasing the power of Eman. On fasting we have to think about Taqwa which Allah wants from us at any cost which is ending part of the aforementioned verse. The month of Ramadan is itself a reward for Muslims in which our lord gives us in huge amount of compensation for the prayers. For example one obligatory prayer gets seventy times compensation and likewise, other extra prayers are equal to in compensation to one obligatory prayer. This sacred month ensures to do good deeds and get the compensation in return for them which would enormously bring rewards and hefty mercies upon us. Indeed Allah never breaks his promises with his slaves. Whatever, he promises and he does perfectly. If we do good deeds and definitely we will get their rewards in this world and in the hereafter, provided that we should have pure intentions of performing them. In Ramadan we must be very punctual to perform all deeds intentionally which have been ordered to us. This Ramadan gives us a lesson in remembering of Allah wholeheartedly and to get inclined (Qurub) to him so that our sins will be erased from our accounts. Forgiveness of sins only lies in his hands but we have to convince him to make us pure with his eternal blessings. .
We know one of the prominent practices in Ramadan is fasting for attaining Taqwa which is the main purpose of Ramadan. We always try to stick to prayers more in this month by reciting Quran, offering obligatory prayers and including many types of prayers like supererogatory prayers (Nawafil) long prayers (Tarawiyeh) and also doing (Atikaaf) in last ten days are the important acts to perform. These acts refrain from coming bad thoughts and desires in our mind and heart. Fasting is meant to instill this virtuous quality within us and its associated virtues of good character, generosity, patience, purity of heart and so on. In this way fasting acts as a shield which protect us from sin and ultimately from the punishment of Allah in the hereafter. From this we observe one unique message that we have to keep on restraining ourselves from all small and grave sins. This sort of training we get in this month will prompt us to have full dedication in worshipping of Allah for the upcoming time of life after leaving the Ramadan.
(The Author is MSc from university of kashmir).
