THE HOLY MONTH- RAMADAN

The holy month of Ramadan has started, and inshaallah, it will remind us like every year many virtues of life. In this month Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. During this month, people try and be as religious as possible.

Ramazan isnt about fasting only but is also about inner purity, the month of Ramadan brings you closer to your pure soul. That is the spirituality aspect of it( People following my blog would realize that I can go on and on about it, but I will not right now).

Besides spirituality, Ramadan teaches you various lessons in life. One of them is patience. Picture this after an entire day of fasting, you sit on the table where all the delicacies are served for Iftar( The breaking of the fast), but you can eat them only after the Azan( the call for prayer). You need a strong resolve to avoid eating it. Now when you eat it, you also realize how difficult it was for you to go the entire day without eating. There are hundreds and thousands on the streets, in the refugee camps, in war torn countries, and people in economically backward countries who struggle to put together one meal a day for themselves and their family. We realize what they have to go through each day of the year, and even the one meal they have is nothing compared to the delicacies we have at the end of the day!. This tells you to be humble and thank the almighty for his blessings and at the same time realize that its your responsibility to help those in need of food, not once a year but as much as possible.

Zakah( charity, given in the month of Ramadan) is obligatory to all Muslims who have made money more than required for the family. This Zakah money when collected takes care of food for the poor for a year also. Imagine this being practiced by every individual in this world!. It will definitely reduce crimes, and deaths because of hunger, the society would be more balanced and will definitely surge forward.

This is and always been the lesson Islam has taught. To be humble,patient, caring and peaceful. The actions of some of the kind may have raised doubts , but let me ask , which family doesn't have a black sheep. It is necessary that all of us, not to categorize an entire community based on the acts of few, it is like playing a lottery. We need to respect individuality and also respect ones choices. People say that Islam is an intolerant religion, let me quote here from the Holy Quran :

“O disbelievers!”

[Kafiroon 109:2] Neither do I worship what you worship.

[Kafiroon 109:3] Nor do you worship Whom I worship.

[Kafiroon 109:4] And neither will I ever worship what you worship.

[Kafiroon 109:5] Nor will you worship Whom I worship.

[Kafiroon 109:6] For you is your religion, and for me is mine.

What needs to be understood here is that no religions preaches intolerance, it is the perception and the situation which gives rise to certain sects. To make a point, I must add that the so called Islamic militancy is more political than religious, and it is not fair to categorize the act of a community, who for its political ambitions does atrocious acts, on the religion they follow. Just because the church was responsible for massacres in the 19th century doesnt make it evil, or the acts of Hitler doesnt make the entire Christian community a militant. Should the acts of Veerapan, Maoists, or LTTE be categorized as Hindu terrorism, because the leaders of these movements are Hindus!, NO, then why is the act of Bin Laden who for his political hatred of USA is taking the cover of Jihad, considered an Islamic Militant!.

There is one small thing I must add before I conclude. It is necessary that we as people keep our eyes and ears open and use our brains to understand what is happening around us. Now take the example of two channels QTV and PEACE TV. They have been banned in India after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, with the reason that these channels are being telecast from Pakistan. I can definitely say that whoever has taken this decision has never watched these channels. These channels do not propagate any kind of political will, and only talk about the religion Islam. For the matter of fact PEACE TV is run by a Indian Muslim Dr. Zakir Naik who has an entirley clean image and has even learned all the major religions of the world and talks about how similar they are to Islam!. Now how can these channels be banned for suspicion of telecasting or propagating violence?.

Coming back to the month of Ramadan, it is also a month of forgivness. The almighty lord , on the repentance of his creation, for gives the creation, and so do we. It is not possible to live with hatred and it is important to forgive. You wouldnt always be treated fairly, and so it is important to forgive pepple. Thats the note I want to sign off on

Ramadan teaches you the virtue of forgiving, its about time we learn it