Ramadan : Rise to the Call!

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self”, said Aldous Huxley, the English novelist.

This month of Ramadan will see Muslims the world over observe the fasts. Ramadan, essentially, is the month in which believers are required to buckle down more consciously and improve their own ‘corner of the universe’. The month is marked by heightened religious observance and also a keener sense of social cohesion, and provides a powerful energy for self-transformation.

As the month progresses, many Muslims, repentant for the ills and misdeeds of their past, resolving never to return to such ways again. Indeed, men, women and whole societies actively purify themselves during this month. This experience becomes, for many, the turning point of the year and, for some, their whole lives. Furthermore, Ramadan yields to the believer an array of timely lessons to help steer them through what is fast becoming a chaotic and volatile world.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali writes (in verse form):

‘O you who were not content to sin just in Rajab;
But disobeyed your Lord, even in Sha‘ban.
The fasting month has come now to shade you,
Turn it not into a month of sinfulness too.
But strive to recite the Quran and glorify God;
For it is the month of glorification and Quran.
Deny bodily appetites, seeking salvation through it;
For soon bodies shall be consumed by the Fire.
How many you knew who fasted previously:
From among family, neighbours and brothers.
Death obliterated them, leaving you to live on;
How close are the the living to those who are dead.
You take pride in your ‘Id clothes, cut to fit;
Yet the morrow they will be your burial shrouds!
Until when will man dwell in his place of dwelling?
Knowing his ultimate abode is the grave.’

[Lata’if al-Ma‘arif (Riyadh: Dar Ibn Khuzaymah, 2007), 351-2]