By Amatul Qafaar
Have you ever felt overwhelmed because you didn’t know exactly what you are expected to do during Ramadan?
I have had one of those moments until I came across this Ayah and it made my life easier and my Ramadan much more exciting.
“The month of Ramadan (is that) in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights (the new moon of) the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and (wants) for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that (to) which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.” Quran 2:185
You might be thinking that what you are expected to do is not half of what you are doing. And in most cases people feel like they haven’t achieved what they were supposed to achieve during Ramadan, so Allah puts the whole concept in this Ayah and tells us what to do to fulfill our duties. In sha Allah, we will try to break the concept down and hopefully it will help us get a solid expectations of what we need to do.
What defines Ramadan?
As the Ayah begins with a definition of the month, Ramadan is a celebration for the revelation of the Quran, Allah goes on to define the Qur’an for us in which we won’t be writing about in this article today but if something defines something it simply means that the latter’s focus should be in that which defines it. And in this case, one of the most important things to do during Ramadan is to build a strong connection with the Qur’an to truly celebrate its revelation. We will look into the concept of the Quran and Ramadan in our upcoming articles, in sha Allah.
Upon witnessing Ramadan…
If you witness the new moon of the month, then all Allah is asking for, before anything else, is for you to fast. And by fasting, you need not only to starve if you are not fasting from other sins. Just like the way eating and drinking intentionally breaks ones fast, the sins of the tongue and the eyes and the ears also break the fast. So what you need to do for you to have the expected outcome of the fasting is to safeguard your fast the same way you hold yourself back from eating and drinking.
Allah goes on to say that if we happen to be sick or traveling, we need to take break from fasting. And that He intends ease for us. He added that we need to complete the missed fasting days for us to experience the full joy of the full period (Ramadan). Allah (swt) further elaborates that during the fast we need to focus on glorifying Him so that He may pave the path for us to become grateful slaves.
Having studied and analyzed the Ayah, it is obvious that Ramadan is not supposed to be a month in which people who are striving should be overwhelmed due to the numerous tasks they have to perform to achieve the results Allah wanted from them, instead it is a month of ease blessed with minimum tasks to be perfected.
And with that, we will end the first part of “What we are expected to do” during Ramadan. And in sha Allah, we will come together tomorrow for another discussion of the same topic – this time in a deeper and more critical form.
Wa salaam alaikum warahmatuhi wa barakaatuhu.
