There has come to you Ramadan, a blessed month which Allah has enjoined you to fast, during which the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the rebellious devils are chained up. In it there is a night which is better than a thousand months, and whoever is deprived of its goodness is indeed deprived.

There is no other time to purify your soul than now. Almighty Allah has offered us another opportunity to be alive to witness another glorious month, Ramadan. Alhamdullilah. Not all those who prayed for it got it. Within the last twelve months, innumerable souls have gone to the great beyound, so many who had wished and prepared for the month could not have the grace to witness it.

Some witnessed the begining of the month but are no more today. Some though not dead but in critical conditions without the consciousness of observing the first Ramadan. Of course, we are not any better, we are rather specially blessed by Allah (SWT). Alhamdullilah.

At this point, the purity of one’s soul is very essential in achieving the best of this month. It is better we plan and work in such a way that our personality and whole lives will be better for it at the end of the month. The beauty is that if we are able to achieve it, it will ultimately help to regulate what we do for the rest of the year.

Yes! We want to abstain from food and drink for 29 or 30 days as Allah commanded, but the inner dimension of the fast is necessary so as to reap fully the benefits of the blessed month.

Some of the ways to keep it away from contamination is to forgive those who have wronged you, be good to others. Seek forgiveness from Allah, show kindness and compassion to others, shun bad acts and free your soul from the grip of Shaytan, cleanse the soul of iniquities, evil thoughts, malice, backbiting, hatred and other bad acts. Naturally, the two forces that usually inhibit us from doing good, are Shaytan and our nafs. (our inner self)

Purifying our souls

The Prophet (s.a.w) said that Shaytan is chained during the month of Ramadan; that leaves us with our own souls. Therefore, we need to work on purifying our souls so that it will be in concert with the activities of the month. Evaluate your nafs, or inner self, discover those things you have done wrong and repent never to do them again. This is important because, fasting without the purification of the inner soul will not produce the fully reward.

Let us for once reminds ourselves that there is more to life than physical and material joy; there is a deeper fulfillment than eating, sleeping, and drinking. There is the need to take away focus from the worldly things we have been doing since the last 11 months, let us turn a new leaf, let us see one another as brothers, let us share from what we have and build better spirituality. You must have a pure life, pure personality and a pure you. You must not only purify your ways of thinking and feeling, but must also purify your living.

We know it is not an easy task combating one’s soul on what is bad, but the opportunity is here now.

Begin the month on a good note. It cannot be as usual, you’ve got to be a changed person this Ramadan. The Qur’an says “Indeed who succeeds, who purifies his own self, and indeed he fails who corrupts his own self” (91:9-10).

It might be difficult to do extra ibadah especcially for those who have not been doing it before now. If we don’t usually spend too much time reciting the Qur’an, it might be difficult to achieve recitaion of the complete Quran during Ramadan. All you need to do is to reshuffle your schedules and make them fit appropriately into the month with all the required ibadaah.

One sure way we can all benefit from Ramadan is to give more. We can give more of our time to Allah and to others; in so doing, we will understand and take to heart what Ramadan and Islam is all about. Fasting from dawn to dusk not only teaches us to control our unruly bodies, making them aware that we control them rather than the other way around, but it also helps us to think of others who are less fortunate than ourselves. There are many whose fast will not end after sunset.

With the level of poverty in this country, many will obserse sahur without food with no hope of what to eat to break their fast. So, we need to give thanks to Allah for His blessings on us by remembering people like in such predicament.

So, it is a time we not only give our time to Allah, but also give our talents and material things especially food to others is a way of celebrating Ramadan. It may cost us big to give out of our plenty to those who have nothing, but the reward is far greater and cannot be imagined.

By doing so in Ramadan, we are appreciative of Allah’s blessings over us. As we hope and pray for Allah’s mercy during this month of Ramadan, let us all focus on the lasting transformation of our hearts and souls. Let us shed what is impure so that the changes that follow can carry us forward through our remaining days and years, both on this earth and hereafter.