Ramadhan
To all of us,
I appeal to all of you my brothers and myself to have
taqwa or faith in Allah s.w.t. by carrying out all His Commandments and
refraining from doing things that He has forbidden. We must also strive truly
to stop doing any bad deeds, especially we are now on the eve of the holiest
month, the month of Ramadhan.
Tomorrow, insya Allah, we will be ushering in the
month of Ramadhan. Tomorrow the followers of Islam throughout the world will
start to fast for a whole month. Tomorrow the followers of Islam will receive
various kinds of bounties and blessings from Allah s.w.t. Now there are only a
few hours left for us to make preparations for this holy month.
My brothers,
What do we need to do to prepare ourselves to face
this holy month of Ramadhan? Be aware that among the important things we need
to prepare ourselves with are that of having the knowledge and preparing our
soul or our spiritual self. We need to have the knowledge and once again have
reference on what are the important things we need to know to observe during
the fast of Ramadhan. Do we know what are the things that will nullify our
fast? Do we know what are the things that we are required to do during the
month of Ramadhan?
If the answer is no, or we have doubts on what we need
to do, we should quickly read up again the books of fiqh concerning the fast of
Ramadhan. We should not allow our ignorance to the fiqh of fasting to nullify
our fast. If a student needs to study and analyse his lessons before taking his
examinations in order to pass in that subject, likewise for us the followers of
Islam who will be facing the month of Ramadhan. Therefore to be among those who
will be blessed and bestowed by Allah s.w.t in this month of Ramadhan, we need
to study and remember again the requirements of fasting in the month of
Ramadhan and what are the things that will nullify our fast.
Maybe we know are the things that will nullify our
fast. Maybe we are among those who observe the fast diligently. If we are among
this group of people, we should be grateful to Allah. However at the same time,
we should also remind ourselves on the etiquette of fasting, especially the
etiquette with regards to our physical and spiritual self.
My brothers, be aware that many of those who have fasted
but they do not get any rewards whatsoever from their fast. On the contrary,
they have instead accumulated their sins. Unintentionally, they have carried
out bad deeds in this month where Allah forgives the sins of His servants. How
could this happen?
This happens when we do not observe the etiquette of
fasting. Rasulullah s.a.w. has narrated which means: “There are many of those who have fasted, they do
not receive any blessings from their fast except that of being hungry and
thirsty.”
Therefore, to prevent ourselves from being in such a
situation, we need to observe the etiquette of fasting. Fasting does not only
mean refraining ourselves from eating and drinking in the daytime of Ramadhan.
It is demanded upon us to guard our bodies from doing any bad deeds. We need to
guard our eyes from looking at things that are forbidden, like looking at
woman’s aurat, looking at things that are forbidden and indecent. Indeed
guarding our eyesight is such a great challenge. Today we can see everywhere
around us many women exposing their aurat. Not to look at them is something
that is rather impossible. Islam has provided guidelines – the unintentional
first glance is not a sin. However, if that first glance is prolonged with the
intention of admiring that woman’s beauty, or if that first glance is followed
with a second glance, this action is forbidden and is sinful. Such action
should not take place more so during the month of Ramadhan. Today we are also
exposed to many forbidden sights shown on the television, where women are
exposing their aurat and performing things that are forbidden. We must also
take care regarding such sights. It is not only a sin to look at the exposed
aurat of a woman in person, but also those seen on televisions and photos.
My brothers, take this opportunity presented in this
month of Ramadhan to give our eyes a rest from seeing sinful things, like how
we have given our stomach to have a rest from eating and drinking during the
daytime in the month of Ramadhan.
Besides guarding our eyes from seeing forbidden
things, we must also ensure that the rest of our body is also guarded from
things that are forbidden. We must guard our ears from listening to gossip,
slandering remarks, dirty talks and others. We must also guard our mouth from sins,
like telling lies, slandering, criticising others, talking bad about others,
cursing, swearing or making barbed remarks. Such things can nullified our fast.
My brothers,
Remember that the heart is where Allah s.w.t. looks
at, and not at our beautiful clothes or appearance. Therefore we must guard our
hearts so that this place that Allah looks at is always pure and beautiful and
not dirty and bad. How do we cleanse our hearts? The way is for us to prevent
ourselves from committing immorality and guarding our hearts from having
forbidden emotions. We guard our hearts from feelings of jealousy among our
Muslims brothers, guarding our hearts from suspicions, arrogance, pride,
conceit, loftiness and others. When we are able to cleanse our heart from such
dirty and bad feelings, we can then decorate it with pure and honourable
characteristics.
Honourable characters include being humble, feeling
that one has not done enough good deeds, always feeling remorseful and
repentance of one’s past sins, always remembering Allah, seeking forgiveness
from Allah, etc. These are among the honourable characteristics that we can
decorate our hearts with so that Allah will see it as place the pure and
beautiful.
My brothers,
Allah s.w.t has stated in surah Al-Baqarah, verse 183:
It means : “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for
you as it was prescribed for those
before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).”
This is the aim of our fasting, that we become pious.
And to attain piety, we need to prepare ourselves to face this month of
Ramadhan. Remember my brothers, to prepare our physical self we need to read up
again on the law and requirements of fasting in the month of Ramadhan as well
as guarding every parts of our body from committing immorality. To prepare our
spiritual self we have to purify our hearts from any bad or ill feelings. We
have to increase our remembrance of Allah, read the Al-Quran and perform other
form of good deeds like doing voluntary prayers, giving alms during this holy
month of Ramadhan. By doing such, we will be among those who are pious, ameen
ya Rabbal álamin.
From
The Resource Centre Committee Members
SMKPP 11(2)