Ramadan isn’t just the ninth month in the Muslim calendar, it’s a month when Qur’an was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and in which the most special night of the year, Lailatul Qadr falls. It’s the time when all the Muslims count their blessings and make an extra effort to shape themselves as better human beings and practice their religion as best as they can. It’s a month where we all get an opportunity to rededicate our lives to God, and hence another chance to reboot our spiritual orientation.
Fasting does not aim at inflicting punishment upon self or taking on unendurable burden. The basic idea behind it is to teach austerity and spiritual discipline so that the human temptations and desires don’t turn wild or uncontrollable, besides waking us up to the miseries and hardships of the poor, needy and hungry. That is why there is great emphasis on zakat – the almsgiving.
Fasting in the month of Ramadhan isn’t just about not eating or drinking during a stipulated period of the day, but it is about an absolute  control on ones baser self and even beyond that. We all are called upon to use this month to revaluate our lives. We are to make peace with those who have wronged us, strengthen ties with family and friends, and do away with bad habits, essentially to clean up our lives, our thoughts and our feelings.
Now that the month of glory, its radiant days and redolent nights are about to leave us, there are a few questions we must answer to ourselves. Have we really fulfilled what Ramadan demands from us? Have we really fought temptations and desires and defeated them or have we observed Ramadan as a mere ritual? Have we observed the month the way it is prescribed for us? We need to do a thorough soul-searching and try to find answers to these questions, for we aren’t supposed to follow the Ramadan injunctions for pomposity or to pretend piety. Islam strictly recommends against any hypocrisy or show-off.
And it doesn’t end there. Ramadan is a transition to recharge our spiritual batteries for the rest of the year. But sad enough, just when the holy month ends, many of us leave behind each of the good things we’d switched to during this month. What do we say about a person who sews a beautiful garment and then destroys it by pulling the threads one by one? This is exactly the condition of a person who returns back to sinning and evil doing after Ramadan and shuns obedience and all the righteous deeds.
Why does it happen that the men who would pray five times in congregation filling the first rows of the mosques give up on salah once Ramadan concludes? Why does one return to lying, cheating and ditching which they thought was something out of question during Ramadan. That we are prohibited from doing the wrong things in Ramadan doesn’t mean each of those things is permitted otherwise. If something is sinful and immoral in Ramadan, it’s sinful and immoral in other months of the year too. And Quran and hadith are unequivocal about it.
We must continuously be in the state of obedience to God, so that we don’t fall in the group of people who worship God only during one month or at just one place. In fact a believer knows that the Lord of Ramadan is also the Lord of other months and that He is the Lord of all times and places.
One needs to be steadfast and upright upon their religion, not just in Ramadan or at a particular place but at all the times and places, for you don’t know when the angel of death will embrace you. Beware of him taking you while you are in a state of sin and disobedience!

(The writer is a B. Tech student from The Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST)

Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST