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Ramadan: Its message for the followers of Islam

Shamsuddin Ahmed
THE holy month of Ramadan comes every year with a dear message from .Allah to fashion our day-to-day life as per the teachings of the holy Quran, seek forgiveness from Allah, and make a fresh vow not to tread the path forbidden by Him. In return. Allah promises to forgive all our sins and wrongdoings and offers us a place in Heaven.
This is a redemption offer from Allah peculiar to the month of Ramadan only, possibly because the holy Quran was rewaled to the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam for the first time during Ramadan.
Allah is the most merciful and the most beneficent. He does not want
to punish us and consign us to hell just because we haw strayed from the path of righteousness. Hence 1 lis offer to the wayward Muslims, to forgive them and saw them from damnation, if they sincerely repented and promised to live and act only as ordained by Allah in the holy Quran.
Abstinence from food and drinks and sex is not all that Allah demands from the Muslims. It is only after we haw repented, and haw made a pledge not to go back to our follies but to begin anew a life of piety and righteousness, that Allah will forgive us and give us salvation.
Ramadan aims at inculcating in us the true spirit and ideals of Islam through a month-long exercise of our body and soul. While day-long
fasting for a month conditions the body not to succumb to earthly pleasures, in spite of the fact that such pleasures arc within easy reach and the enfeebled body also needs them, the prayer at night nourishes and enriches the soul.
The enriched soul is steeled in determination to resist the temptation to fall prey to the greed and . illusions of our mundane world. It becomes strong enough to seek solace and comfort in the rigours of fasting and in compliance with the code of conduct as enunciated in the holy Quran.
The whole purpose of the exercise of fasting and concomitant Tarawi prayer in congregation in mosques, and other prayers, is to mould our life as true Muslims. A
true Muslim is one who has fear of Allah instilled in him or her. Allah will judge you not by the length of your beard nor by the bright eye catching headgear or headscarf you wear, but by the fear of Allah burning in your heart and soul.
The prophet (PBUH) only coveys the will of Allah when he says that we must fast during he day and remain awake and pray at night. So Ramadan comes with a 24-hour routine for the Muslims.
Is Ramadan confined to the limits of fasting and praying only? No, it is a complete code of life for all Muslims rich or poor, black or white, male or female.
The code is a set of instructions on our behaviour; like we must not lie or cheat, harm other human beings, drink alcohol, gamble, indulge in adultery, earn through corruption, bribery, theft and all such wrongdoings, own property and wealth beyond lawful source of income, and so and so forth.
The Prophet (PBUH) says that if you fast during the day but cannot refrain from telling a lie and doing evil, such fasting is not acceptable to
Allah. Mark this saying. It means that we must practice the complete code of life as enunciated in the holy Quran during the month of Ramadan.
The spirit of Ramadan teaches a Muslim to be humane, tolerant, temperate and concerned about the distress of fellow human beings, regardless of their faith. If you fast the whole day and pray the whole night, but do not bother whether your neighbour has food and do not share your food with him, your fasting is a waste in the eyes of Allah. Your fasting and prayers are not acceptable to Allah if you try to sell a commodity at a higher price, or less in weight and poor in quality.
If a man abuses you and threatens to physically attack you, as a fasting Muslim you have to exercise maximum restraint so as not to be provoked into retaliating, but to say politely that you are fasting and that you are not going to be drawn into a brawl come what may. This is the teaching of Ramadan, and of Islam as well.
The month of Ramadan comes with very attractive offers for the
Muslims to add to their treasure of good deeds, which are so essential for life hereafter. If a Muslim prays and does what is obligatory in this month, he or she will get 70 times more reward than in other months. If a Muslim offers one rakat farz (mandatory) prayer during the month of Ramadan, it is equivalent to 70 rakat farz prayer in other months.
If a Muslim prays and does what is optional in this month, Allah will reward him or her as if he or she has prayed and done something mandatory. If a Muslim offers one rakat nafal (optional) prayer during the month of Ramadan, he or she will be rewarded by Allah as if it were a farz prayer.
If somebody pays Tk. 1 in alms or charity in the month of Ramadan, it is equivalent to Tk.70 paid in other months. This is, in fact, aimed at encouraging Muslims to do acts of piety and other noble works not only in the month of Ramadan but also throughout the year.
But nothing can match the glory and majesty of Lailatul Qadr, the Night of Power, which falls in the month of Ramadan. It is a night,
which is better than a thousand months in terms of Divine bounties for mankind. It means that if someone prays to Allah on this night, it will be as if he or she has prayed for a thousand nights. Imagine the graciousness and magnanimity of Allah. On this night angels and Gabriel descend with the permission of Allah and bestow Divine blessings on those who remain awake and seek mercy of Allah.
In our crisis ridden country, where
corruption and crime have risen to an all time high and where honesty and piety and other ethical and moral values have seemingly ceased to exist, especially among those who have governed us and who are waiting in the wings to govern us and to administer justice to us, Ramadan offers us a panacea for the ills and a way forward out of the woods.
Brig Gen Shamsudd n Ahmed (Retd), is a former military secretary to the President of Bangladesh.