Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation with its headquarter in the United Kingdom having more than ten million members and supporters around the world. The organisation published ten quick facts about the Ramadan on his website which are not only an informative for those who don’t know much about Ramadan rather, it is a reminder and admonition for the followers that this is also your religious responsibility. The organisation gave the world a message that “Ramadan is a time to feel closer to God, pray, spend time with loved ones, support charities and remember those less fortunate while fasting”. The organisation told that “Ramadan is often a community affair, with more people attending mosque in the evenings and coming together with friends and family for iftar”. One of the quick fact was that “During the last 10 days of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate the Laylat Al Qadr, the holiest night of the year. It commemorates the night that the Quran, the Muslim Holy Book, was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)”.
It is indeed a fact that Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan, aiming to grow in spirituality by building a stronger relationship with God. They do this through fasting, praying, reciting the Qur’an, making their actions purposeful and selfless, as well as refraining from lying, gossiping and fighting. Muslims also maintain that fasting allows them to get a feeling of poverty and this may foster feelings of empathy. Ramadan is often likened to a spiritual training camp. Muslims aim to foster certain attitudes and values that they would be able to cultivate over the course of an entire year. Muslims surely focus more on purifying the souls with acts of worship, by avoiding personal conflicts, improving relations, maintaining a clean diet, paying zakat, and balancing worldly matters. Fasting is one of the best ways to learn to be patient. We also learn perseverance, gratitude, and contentment through fasting, which enhances our faith and belief in Allah more than any other act of worship. We should also give more generously to charity by not only prioritizing our needy family, relatives, and neighbours but also to Non-Muslims to attract them and keep closer to Islam. God tells us in Surah Tawbah that “Indeed, charitable offerings are only [to be given] to the poor and the indigent, and to those who work on [administering] it, and to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to [free] those in bondage, and to the debt-ridden, and for the cause of Allah, and to the wayfarer. [This is] an obligation from Allah. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise”. Syyed Maududi explains that “A portion of Zakat funds may also be given to win over to Islam those who might be engaged in anti-lslamic activities or to those in the camp of the unbelievers who might be brought to help the Muslims or to those newly converted Muslims, who might be inclined to revert to kufr if no monetary help was extended to them. It is permissible to award pensions to them or give them lump sums of money to make them helpers of Islam or submissive to it or at least to render them into harmless enemies. A portion of the spoils or other incomes may be spent on them and, if need be, also a portion of Zakat funds. In such cases, the condition of being needy or indigent or on a journey etc. is also waived; nay, they might be even rich people or chiefs who are otherwise not eligible for anything from Zakat funds”.
In short, we can benefit from the month of Ramadan being more generous, closer to friends, families & neighbours, tolerant and kind which ultimately would produce the attitude of harmony, mutual respect, sympathy as well as empathy towards humans that resulted as a modest and moderate society. Hazrat Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Every action a son of Adam does shall be multiplied—a good action by ten times its value, up to 700 times. Allah says: With the exception of fasting, which belongs to Me, and I reward it accordingly… (Al-Bukhari).
The author is a professor of Islamic Studies at Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan.
