A Beginners Guide to Ramadan

The start of Ramadan is always difficult, especially for the 2-3 years which have seen the length of the fast increase year by year. This year the average length is 15 hours! That is a very long time. Obviously at this early stage my mind and body are suffering big time - everything seems in a haze, even the computer screen while I type.

With that in mind, today I want to keep things basic and discuss the importance of Ramadan. I've attempted to talk about this 2 years ago when I last blogged whilst fasting and I guess today is a re-hash of that, but hopefully better. A Beginners Guide to Ramadan if you will - humour me please!

Fasting involves abstention from all food, drink, vain talk and intimate relations for married couples from the time before dawn, until after sunset. These practical elements are geared towards achieving a time of sustained and amplified effort towards spiritual perfection. All the qualities that make us Muslim and determine our behaviour and actions need to be enahnced in this month. Avoiding sin and striving for God's blessings receives great reward from God.

In addition to fasting and aiming for excellent moral character, we devout time and energy towards prayer and supplication to God. The month of Ramadan contains the the Night of Power, when God determines each and every event to occur in the following year. A chance for us to repent for our sins and to make a fresh start. The importance of that night should not be underestimated - compare it to an opportunity, whereby one day a year all your debt and credit card bills etc are cleared and you are then given a healthy deposit of cash. How you spend that cash throughout the following year is then judged by God, but then the following year you have the chance to restart. Of course, no such day exists but imagine if it did - that's the importance, spiritually, the Night of Power carries.

A lot of people, non-Muslims and Muslims alike, ask why we need to fast? Surely just making an effort to better ourselves is enough, why is God asking us to fast for 30 days on the trot? Fasting focuses the mind. One could argue that food, drink, vanity, intimate desires are all material pleasures and hence distract us from God. Abstaining from all these builds and strengthens a person's self-control, nearing them to their creator. Having less time spent on vain talk and eating big meals allows to concentrate on God and strive to become better year on year.

People forget, it's not just Muslims who have the prescription of fasting from God. Previous religions also carried great weight with fasting, but over time the importance has been forgotten. For Christians there remains the concept of Lent, where they choose to abstain from one or multiple items of their choice for forty days. It represents the time Jesus spent in the desert fasting for 40 days to ward off Satanic temptation:

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." (Matthew 4:1-2)

For Jews there is the Day of Atonement, when they spend a day of rest and fasting. Spending the day in repentance and prayer. Although the concept exists, over time the effects have been significantly watered down and it no longer retains the power the we Muslims benefit from during the month of Ramadan.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar calendar and is a sacred month because God ordained it for the revelation of sacred texts. The Torah was revealed in the Jewish month of Sivan, which according to research, translates to the month of Ramadan. Also, according to hadith, the Bible was revealed in Ramadan and of course the Holy Quran was revealed in Ramadan on the Night of Power.

In conclusion, Muslims observe fast, as in any act of devotion, to seek nearness to God, seek His pleasure and Forgiveness, and generate a spirit of piety in Man. Fasting in this month honors the revelation of God’s word and purifies one in preparation for the night of decrees and in hope of forgiveness. Fasting is a yearly spiritual renewal, given abundant reward in this month of God’s mercy, that is part of the Islamic path to the ideal self.

I can't stress enough how important the month of Ramadan is. The benefits on offer during the month are limitless and with them come great rewards and blessings. On a personal note, I've only come to appreciate this as I've got older. Previously, it just used to be about fasting from dawn till dusk and nothing else. I remember at university, Ramadan fell during the winter months and I used to stay awake till dawn and sleep till dusk - cheating the system is a polite way of describing what I did! However, as I've grown older (perhaps matured?), I've come to appreciate it's significance and the wonderful opportunity it provides for me to connect with God and attempt to receive his blessings for this world and the hereafter. Beofre I finish, I leave you with a quote from the Holy Quran and a request: how about some comments about what Ramadan means to you and how important it is to you personally?

“And men who fast and women who fast…God has prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.” (Quran Surah 33, Verse 35)

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?