Ramadhan: Does it change us!

This year the month of fasting – Ramadhan – comes at a time when the pandemic has brought human arrogance to knees. From West to East the man has realised that with all our worldly strengths – industrial, capitalistic, and militaristic – we are finally defenceless. This pandemic has exposed our exploitative, and oppressive relationships with our fellow human beings, and with the nature.

Ramadhan is the time we search our souls and seek forgiveness for all our acts of oppression and exploitation. Ramadhan is a reminder from God that your acts, your deeds, your thoughts and your intentions – every single thing will be accounted for. This month marks a return to God. But with what face do we stand before God when our worldly ambitions are unchanged. We cheat others in the name of business transactions. We encroach land, horde provisions, do profiteering, break rules, and violate agreements – and then we welcome Ramadhan. God doesn’t need our celebrations, observations, and rituals. God wants us to end all exploitative deeds. This month if we don’t spend on poor and marginalised, we are doubly guilty. This month if we don’t hold the hand of weak and oppressed, we are abject criminals. This month if our business owners don’t take care of their staff, that is already underpaid, their fasting is a mere act of going hungry for the day. God doesn’t need that. This month if a government employee who takes a fat salary doesn’t take care of his neighbour who has lost his job, is a heartless fellow. This is the month of charity and goodness. This is the month when the well off Muslims should come forward and spend their wealth not just on fellow Muslims, but others as well.

   

Ramadhan is not a community festival, it is the recovery of our relationship with God, and with God’s family – the human kind. At a time when Muslims are subjected to ridicule, and presented in an ugly light, Ramadhan gives an opportunity to tell the world that we care for human race. That we stand by the poor, by the oppressed, and by the exploited. Regardless of which community they belong to. Ramadhan is the month of universal goodness, and let the good flow from all of us, to all all of us. If this month doesn’t change us for good, we are the worst of creatures.

Welcome Ramadhan.

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