Allah (swt) obligated the fasting of the month of Ramadan in Sha‘ban of the second year of migration, so how did the Prophet (saws) prepare Muslims and society to receive Ramadan? what did he do before Ramadan? What should we prepare to receive this generous guest? Allah (swt) bless you Ramadan. How many hands of good do you have, whenever your sun shines, and your spectrum settles at home! Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him) told of God’s messenger saying in a sermon which he delivered to them on the last day of Sha’ban month:
“O people, A great month, a blessed month, a month containing a night which is better than a thousand months has approached you. God has appointed the observance of fasting during it as an obligatory duty, and the passing of its night in prayer as a voluntary practice. If someone draws near to God during it with some good act he will be like one who fulfils an obligatory duty in another month, and he who fulfills an obligatory duty in it will be like one who fulfills seventy obligatory duties in another month. It is the month of endurance, and the reward of endurance is paradise. It is the month of sharing with others, and a month in which the believer’s provision is increased. If someone gives one who has been fasting something with which to break his fast it will provide forgiveness of his sins and save him from hell, and he will have a reward equal to his without his reward being diminished in any respect.” Some of them remarked to God’s messenger that they did not all have the means to give one who had been fasting something with which to break his fast, and he replied, “God gives this reward to him who gives one who has been fasting some milk mixed with water, or a date, or a drink of water with which to break his fast, and anyone who gives a full meal to one who has been fasting will be given a drink from any tank by God and will not thirst till he enters paradise. It is a month whose beginning is mercy, whose middle is forgiveness, and whose end is freedom from hell. If anyone makes things easy for his slave during it, God will forgive him and free him from hell. Do four habits during it: two of the habits to please your Lord, and two habits that you cannot live without. The two that you do to please your Lord are testifying that there is no deity but Allah, and to ask for his forgiveness. The two that you cannot live without are supplicating to Allah for Jannah, and to seek refuge in Him from His hellfire.[1]
With this comprehensive hadith, the Prophet (saws) prepared the community to receive Ramadan, and we receive the holy Ramadan with these verses:
{يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ}
(O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.) (Al-Baqarah: 183)
Therefore, when Allah (swt) says, (O you who have believed), we know that there will be an imposition of a task. However, when Allah (swt) saying, (O people), there would be an informative statement.
( يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ… ) (O you who have believed, decreed upon you…): The verb here is passive. Why did not Allah (swt) say, “Allah has decreed fasting upon you?”
The answer is: There are two parties: From one side, Allah ,The Lord , Who has contracted with the servant by the contract of faith, and on the other hand there is a servant who has contracted with the Lord and believed in Him. So, take from Him (swt) the obligations regardless their hardness. Look at the value of the obligations and their highness, look at the gifts resulted from accomplishing them, and not at the hardship while doing them. Then, after you fulfill them, you will recognize their blessings.
(… كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ… ) (..decreed upon you is fasting…): Because you have believed, fasting has been decreed upon you. We do not force people to do the matters of faith and the requirements of Islam. Just the one who has believed is the one who has chosen.
However, In the hadith that I have already mentioned about Ramadan approaching, the Prophet (saws) said: “O people”. He did not say: “O you who believed”. Why is that? The difference is obvious. Note the rest of the sentence, the Prophet (saws) said: “.. a great month, ….has approached you”. This month approaches the believer and the unbeliever. There is no indicated obligation in the Prophet’s (saws) speech, rather it is informative. He (saws) is informing the peoples that this month has come, that its blessings reach the believer and the non-believer; because the blessing of the month of Ramadan and its bestowments are for all people; the poor and the rich, the believer and non-believer, for the society as a whole. The society in Ramadan becomes an integrated and mutually unit. All people fast simultaneously, they break the fast at the same time, they simultaneously pray Taraweeh. Hence, they do the duties at the same time and sustain from doing the forbidden things. Through fasting, there would be a unified community of faith, in which the prophet’s (saws) saying is proved:
“he believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever”[2]
The society becomes an ideal society with the blessing of the Holy Qur’an, and the blessing of Ramadan covers all people, not only the Muslims. A Muslim in Ramadan becomes a purified angel, the Muslim in Ramadan gives the poor, the Muslim in Ramadan is patient with the harming neighbor, and the Muslim in Ramadan does not curse or insult. Fasting is not only fasting of food and drink, but fasting of ill speech and obscenity. if someone insults or argues him, let him say: I am fasting.
So, the good of the fasting person reflects on others, and this is the qualifying training school which aims to radiate the serenity and spirituality of Ramadan on the rest of the times. This is what Allah (swt) has willed from this training school of Ramadan, that is to reflect good to others by this fasting person, who does not harm the neighbor, does not backbite, does not gossip, does not lie, does not steal or get bribed. When he is deterred by fasting in Ramadan, then he has been qualified in a very sophisticated human training institute, not a human development institute, rather it is a human institute called fasting. This is the meaning of fasting.
Thus, the Prophet (saws) said; “O people, you have a great month approaching”, because the holy month is approaching all people.
What is the meaning of fasting in the Arabic language? It means the abstinence, which is not limited to food and drink but the word fasting may include abstinence from talking too, as in the words of Maryam (PBUH):
{إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ صَوْمًا فَلَنْ أُكَلِّمَ الْيَوْمَ إِنسِيًّا}
‘Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful abstention, so I will not speak today to [any] man.’ (Maryam: 26)
However, the meaning of fast in Islamic terminology is: To abstain from food, drink and all other things that break the fast (the appetence of the belly, and the sexual activity) from dawn to sunset.
From both, the verse and the Hadith of the Prophet (saws) about how to receive Ramadan, we understand that fasting was decreed in all the heavenly religions and societies and upon all human beings, but the requirements may be different. Fasting might be avoiding some kind of food for multiple days without stopping, fasting as well, may be from speech. Hence, all prophets (saws) came with prayer and fasting. So, (O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you.).
(… لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ ) (that you may become righteous…): The purpose of fasting is not abstaining from food and drink only, rather the purpose is to achieve piety. For that, Allah (swt) has not said: that you may become hungry or thirsty, but said: (that you may become righteous). Taqwa (piety) in its general comprehensive meaning indicates all worshiping and obedience acts. Piety has many definitions, including the famous definition of Sayidna Ali (May Allah honour his face) when he was asked about piety, he said: “Piety is having fear from The Magnificent, and acting upon that which was revealed in the Qur’an”. and being contented with the little and being prepared for the day of departure [from this world]. These words include all kinds of worship. Therefore, (that you may become righteous) is the preparation to achieve piety.
Accordingly, Ramadan is a school for training and qualifying to achieve the required righteousness.
Thus, the Prophet (saws) promotes the Muslim community by directing them in the previously mentioned Hadith of Ramadan:
“O people, you have a great month approaching, a blessed month, a month with a night that is better than a thousand months, that Allah has decreed it [the month] as obligatory to fast [during its days], and arising [to pray] in its nights. Whoever draws nearer to Allah in it with a virtuous habit, it is rewarded as doing an obligatory act (farḍ) outside it [the month], and whoever does an obligatory act in it, it is rewarded as doing seventy obligatory acts outside it.”
So, Ramadan is the season in which the rewards, the bestowments, the forgiveness and the blessings multiply. It is a blessed month; the month of manifestations, when you do an obligatory act in it, it is rewarded as doing seventy ones, and doing a non-obligatory act equals an obligatory one in other months. In Ramadan, if you pray at night voluntarily, it is as if you made several obligatory prayers. It is a complete set of acts of worship that bring good things to all human beings, Muslims and non-Muslims, to the whole society. The Prophet (saws) proceeded:
“It is a month of patience, and patience is rewarded by Jannah (paradise). It is a month of consolation; in it, provisions of a believer increase”.
It is the month of patience; because the fasting person is patient. In Ramadan, you refrain from what you usually do; you used to eat, drink and sleep in certain times. In Ramadan, the habits are changed, the style of life is changed in a way that Allah (swt) willed. Hence, we must be patient with this change. Accordingly, the key to any process of change is fasting, for that, when the Prophet (saws) ordered the youth to marry, he said:
‘Whoever among you can afford to get married, let him do so. Whoever cannot afford it, let him fast, for fasting will be a restraint for him.”‘[3]
The restraint is obtained by fasting, a restraint by the process of change. By reducing the consumption of food and drink, the human being becomes in a new situation, a complete change in his life, and he must be patient with it. Because of that, Ramadan is the month of patience.
It is as well the month of consolation; because the fasting person lives the feeling of the poor. One of the purposes of fasting is to feel the pain of hunger and thirst, and then remember the poor. Consequently, if you are unable to fast and refrain from food then, you have to feed the food. So, it is a social solidarity in society, a feeling of the pain of the needy, the pain of the wretched and the poor, so that, it is the month of patience and consolation, a month in which the believer’s provision increases. The Prophet (saws) said:
“I swear by Allah for three (times): The wealth of a man will not diminish by Sadaqah (charity), so give charity…”[4]
You find all people paying zakah out of their money and giving charity in Ramadan, the Prophet (saws) said:
“….If someone gives one who has been fasting something with which to break his fast it will provide forgiveness of his sins and save him from hell, and he will have a reward equal to his without his reward being diminished in any respect…..”
This is the meaning of Allah’s (swt) saying, (that you may become righteous); you may be righteous in all these meanings that the Prophet (saws) mentioned.
[1] Shu‘abul-Iman, chapter 23, Book of Fasting, Hadith No (3608).
[2] Sahih Muslim, The Book of Virtue, Enjoining Good Manners, and Joining of the Ties of Kinship, Chapter: The Mutual Mercy, Compassion and Support of The Believers, Hadith No. (2586).
[3] Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Marriage (Nikaah), Chapter: “Whoever is able to marry, should marry…”, hadith No. (4778).
[4] Musnad al-Bazzar, Vol. 1, Musnad Abdur-Rahman Ibn ‘Awf, Hadith No. 1032.