RAMADHAN

“The night of power is better than a thousand months.”

(Surah Al-Qadr, 97:1-5)

 

Often when we think of fasting in Ramadhan, the first thing which comes to our minds is that we can’t eat or drink, or that the fast is going to be long and the wether is going to be hot, or that we will be too tired to go to work or to school. We always think about the physical nature and element of fasting. And in doing so, we neglect the more important part of fasting, the essence of fasting. And that is the spiritual side, the side that Allah SWT wanted us to focus on, the side that Allah Azza Wa Jal Himself emphasized in the Quran, in the famous verse :

 

“O you who believed, fasting has been prescribed for you just as it was prescribed for those who came before you so that you may achieve taqwa.”

(Al-Baqarah : 183)

 

So that you may achieve TAQWA. Not so that you can lose weight. Not so that you can appreciate hunger or thirst only. Not so that you may tire yourself out. But so that you may achieve TAQWA. This is the understanding that the companions and the scholars of old had of fasting in Ramadhan.

 

And that’s why Imam Malik r.a would stop teaching hadith in the month of Ramadhan and focus on the Quran. That’s why Said Ibn Jubair would complete the Quran every two nights in the month of Ramadhan. That’s why Abdullah Ibn Umar r.a would spend the whole night in prayer in the month of Ramadhan. And he would not break his fast unless there was a poor person eating with him. That’s why what Al-Imam Az-Zuhri would do in the month of Ramadhanis recite the Quran and give charity. And that’s why when Mu’adh r.a was on his deathbed, he said that the thing that he would miss most from this dunya is fasting the long hot summer days.

 

Imagine my dear friends in Islam, that now it is raining good deeds. That Allah is blessing us with the shower of good deeds. And there are literally millions of drops, but these drops are hard to catch because they are so small. That’s how we should envisage the month of Ramadhan. That’s how we should see the month of Ramadhan, as a unique opportunity.

 

The last 10 nights of Ramadhan are fast approaching on us. And this is the time when The Prophet SAW will do more not less. This is when The Prophet SAW would tighten his belt, would up his gain, and he would stay awake all night in worship, and then he would awake his family.

 

In these last 10 nights of Ramadhan, we have Lailatul Qadar. A night which is equal to a thousand months. A thousand months is 83 years of good deeds from a single night of worship. A lifetime of worship from a single night. Don’t waste this unique opportunity for non of us know wether we would ever receive it again.