free!
My deepest love and
respects to you and
your beloved ones
on the advent of
Ramadhan. Like the
other 1.5 billion Muslims on this earth, I am
sure we cannot wait to start fasting daily
and enjoying the blessings of prayer and
Holy Quran in this month. Many positive
feelings overtake us this month:
excitement, happiness, anticipation of
blessings and reward, joy upon meeting
family and friends regularly and the delight
of amazing delicacies on the Iftar table!
However for many of us, it is the negative
emotions that predominate at the start of
this month: fear of yet another
unsuccessful Ramadhan, apprehension and
guilt. We start this month of Ramadhan
feeling guilty for being away from Allah
(SWT) for so long; for not having read Holy
Quran this year until now; of not having
prayed any Tahajjud prayer until now; of
not having fasting throughout the year -
except for now. This guilty feeling leads to
a lot of negativity in our approach to this
month and perhaps to the lack of optimism
in retrying those special attempts we had
made before to read the whole Quran or to
pray Tahajjud every night or some other
good deed in Ramadhan. In fact for so
many of us, guilt takes us away from Allah
(SWT) and makes us feel inferior and
sometimes cripples us to lesser levels of
aspiration and success. "What can this poor
slave of Allah (SWT) achieve anyway, when
he is so engrossed in sins having done so
many evil deeds?" For many - the thought
of what we have done in the past - cripples
us to what we can do in the future.
However, I would like to ask you all to
approach this Ramadhan guilt free! Free of
guilt of the past. Why worry about
something you can't change? It is not the
past that should worry us or bother us,
rather what could happen in the future.
The past is the past - we can't change the
sins we have done in the past - so to
constantly focus on that for the vast
majority of us - is far more crippling for the
future than anything else. The prophetic
guidance is to regret the past sins and
missed opportunities, whilst fearing the
future possible sins and being weary of
missing future opportunities.
It is as Ibnul-Qayyim said in Nooniyyah:"By
Allah, I don't fear my past sins, since I have
sincerely repented to Allah (SWT) and Allah
(SWT) loves to forgive. However, what I
truly fear is that in the future this heart of
mine will cease to rule by this Quran and
this revelation."
Remember that Allah is Al-Wadud - the
loving God - He is the one who loves you
more than your own parents! So
overpowering is Allah's mercy that it has
transcended His anger. So wide is His
Mercy that the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam said: "If the
disbeliever knew of the extent of the Mercy
of Allah, then none would have despaired
of entering His Paradise!" [Reported by
Muslim] And plus, what past sins, when
your sincere repentance with Allah's Mercy
would have wiped it away and replaced it
with equivalent good deeds: "Except him
who repents and believes and does a good
deed; so these are they of whom Allah
changes the evil deeds to good ones; and
Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." [Al-Furqan
25:70]
My friends, how do you dare to think that
Allah (SWT) does not love you? If He hated
you, why did He keep you alive till another
Ramadhan? If He hated you, why does he
provide for you even when you disobey
Him? If He did not love you, why is He
allowing you to taste the sweetness of
loving Him this month by fasting and
praying? If He didn't love you, why did He
keep you upon Islam?
So come back to Al-Wadud - your loving
Lord - the one who loves you more than
anything else. He is waiting for you and is
more happy with you remembering Him
than you can imagine. If you come to Him
today, He will rush to you. If you remember
Him, He will remember you. If you talk
about Him, He will talk about you to those
with Him. If you say sorry O Allah, He will
forgive you and turn them into good.
So start your Ramadhan guilt free and
enjoy a month of renewed emaan and
focus on the good that you can do this
month. Learn from the past mistakes, but
focus on the future! It is truly as the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa
Sallam said: "Verily actions are judged by
their endings."
With all my love and prayer for your
success in this holy month of Ramadhan.
Dr. Tawfique Chowdhury
Ramadhan is the month of Holy Qur'an
Alhamdulillah, we
are truly blessed to
welcome Holy
Month of Ramadhan
2012, which is
another opportunity to invigorate our
spirits, strengthen our faith and pray forour
resolve during this month of mercy and
forgiveness. The Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, in his sermon at
the approach of the Holy Month of
Ramadhan, has said: "And for the one who
spreads his kindness, Allah (SWT) will
spread His mercy over him on the Day of
Judgment."
This is the month of Allah (SWT), the month
of repentance, the month of fasting, the
month of charity, the month of
supplications and recommended prayers,
but on the top of all and according to Holy
Qur'an, this is the month of Qur'an.
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (as) said:
"Everything has a spring and the spring of
Holy Quran is the month of Holy
Ramadhan."
Allah (SWT) has revealed this book to his
last and our beloved Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam as a clear sign of
guidance and judgment between right and
wrong. It is an irony that we Muslims even
after 1400 years are debating the method
of understanding this book while ignoring
a basic fact that the piety and purity of soul
is the pre-requisite to understand this
book. Though Arabic language skills and
qualified teachers also required but if we
look at the current Arab Governments it is
evident that they failed to distinguish
between right and wrong.
This is, perhaps, why we have the "Night of
Power (Lailatul Qadr)" after almost 20 days
of catharsis. The night of power, the most
precious one, comes every year in this
month of Ramadhan. This night is superior
to thousand months and the divine
revelation of the Holy Quran took place in
this night. It is recommended to search this
night every year so the purified souls can
be elevated to the domain of revelation to
comprehend the teachings of Holy Qur'an
and finally be able to differentiate between
right and wrong.
The attitude of indifference and idleness of
people around the world, particularly in
Muslims, will only be removed when they
will be able to differentiate between right
and wrong. That is why Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini (RA) extended the idea of
purification and self-restraint in the month
of Ramadhan to include the International
Day of Al-Quds on the last Friday, because
only the purified and free souls can take
brave actions for the oppressed peopleof
the world.
It is customary among many peoples to set
New Year resolutions. The majority of
people lose their new found resolve,
however, within just a few months. This is
mainly because few of us know how to set
goals for our self-promises. Even less have
an action plan to achieve them.
The best time to set resolutions or renew
intentions for Muslims is not in Muharram
or January, but Ramadhan (R is for
Ramadhan and resolution), for Ramadhan is
divinely designed to be a month of
personal and communal change. No
surprise, then, that it is also the lunar
period in which Allah Almighty changed
the destiny of humankind by blessing them
with His final and universal Divine
Guidance.
The blessed month of Ramadhan offersa
unique opportunity and convenient time
for Tahajjud prayer, especially when the
time of commencing the fast is favorable.
Allah (SWT) gives abundant reward for all
our acts of worship during this blessed
month of Ramadhan, therefore, we need to
make special efforts to pray the Salatul Layl
and keep it up for the rest of the year to
raise our level of spirituality.
We urges all Muslims to refrain from
indulging in the moon sighting debates,
which only divide us further and instead,
we should all focus our energies towards
activities that unify the Muslim Ummah and
make us responsible and caring human
beings by:
. Purifying soul and understanding of the
Holy Qur'an
. Helping people in the Canadian community
and around the world who are suffering
from both man-made and natural disasters
. Raising voices against occupying Zionism
and colonial Imperialism to bring justice
and peace to this great world we all live in
May Allah accept all your good deeds in
this blessed month of Holy Ramadhan
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