Ramadan is Nearing

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

The blessed month of Ramadan is fast approaching, Alhamdulillah. This will be, Insha Allah, my 10th Ramadan as a Muslim and my 6th with my family. When I first started fasting Ramadan neatly corresponded with December and now its straddling the summer and the autumn. For those unaware the shift in dates is owing to the fact that the lunar year, which the Islamic calendar is based on, is 11 days shorter than the solar year. Ramadan itself is fixed as the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

Yesterday, I thought a lot about the up coming Ramadan and how I would make the most of it. I use Ramadan each year as a way to recharge my spiritual batteries, refocus my worship, and dedicate my life, wealth and death to Him.

Ramadan is something truly special. It teaches us to restrain ourselves from our more animalistic lowly desires of food and sex and makes the path to fulfilling our higher desire and greater need of worshiping our Creator.

The relationship between man and his God is set right. We are not His rebellious and ungrateful children, as the Jews and Christians think. We are His slaves, His creation, and we are entirely dependant on Him and He is free of any need or want. Nothing highlights this fact like an empty stomach and a dry tongue.

Once, I was explaining Ramadan and fasting to a kaffir co-worker when a man who overheard our conversation approached and said, ‘what did you say?’. I repeated that in Ramadan we are not allowed food, drink, or sex during the daylight hours. He replied, ‘I’m never going there!’.

Another time, I was sitting in the coffee shop with two friends reading Hadith and discussing Islam. In that conversation, I said that fasting helps you to restrain your lower desires of food and sex. A man who overheard shouted out, ‘those aren’t the lower desires, they’re the higher desires!’.

Such is the state of men in America. These lowly animalistic desires have become the central focus of their lives, which has led to the moral decline and wretchedness of the place.

Oh Allah, give us the strength to take full advantage of this blessed month, a month which You have prefered above all months. Oh Allah, give us the ability to stand, bow, prostrate and sit throughout the nights worshiping none but You. Oh Allah, feed the poor, the orphaned, the sick, the homeless, and the traveller; guard over the weak and oppressed. Oh Allah, we are truly and wholly dependant on You, there is no god but You, all glory belongs to You, all praise belongs to You, there is nothing greater than You.

Oh Allah, bless Muhammed, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, like you blessed Ibrahim, alayhi sallam, and bless the family of Muhammed, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, like you blessed the family of Ibrahim, alayhi sallam.

May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon our noble prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, his family, his companions and all the Muslims.

Ramadan Mubarak my dear Muslims.