Alhamdulillah, all Praises and Thanks to Allah, as we tread these blessed days and nights of Ramadhan, we should remind ourselves again on the whole objectives and goals of fasting, to stay focused and keep our eyes on the prize before we reach the finishing line on our well-deserved ‘Eid-ul Fitr.
There are those who say that fasting is for empathizing with the poor and the less fortunate; there are those who say that it is to build a sense of gratitude to God; there are those who say that it is a spiritual training to endure some ‘pain’ for the sake of God; etc.
Yes, these things are good - But the objectives and goals of fasting are a lot more comprehensive than all those combined. Allah says in the Qur’an:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ - ١٨٣
“O you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed for you as it has been prescribed to the people before you (i.e. the people of the Book), so that you may attain Taqwa” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:183)
The entire goal of fasting is to achieve Taqwa– But what does it mean to have taqwa and how is that achieved through fasting?
One of the companions of the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam) by the name Ubayy ibn Ka’ab was onced asked, “What is taqwa?”. Ubayy replied by asking him, “Have you ever walked on a path/road that has thorns on it? What did you do (i.e. how did you go about it)?”. The questioner said, "I rolled up my sleeves and I struggled (to avoid stepping on those thorns)”.
Ubay ibn Ka’ab said, “That is taqwa”.
Taqwa is the consciousness to live our lives in such a way that we deliberately avoid what is disliked by Allah, fearing the consequences of “stepping on those thorns” or performing acts which transgress the limits and boundaries set by Allah.
But to take it a step further, taqwa isn’t simply about avoiding the Haram, or avoiding Allah’s Displeasure; taqwa is also about inculcating the consciousness to perform good deeds to seek His Pleasure.
It is an attitude and mindset driven by the consciousness of iman and the belief that one will surely return to Allah and will have to be accountable for every single one of our deeds – big, small, open or hidden:
وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ فِيهِ إِلَى اللَّـهِ ۖ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ - ٢٨١
“And have Taqwa (fear) a Day when you will be returned to Allah. Then every soul will be compensated for what it earned, and they will not be treated unjustly.” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:281)
A consciousness to have genuine fear of the terrible punishment from the All-Just (العدل); yet at the same time, a consciousness to have a yearning and hopefulness of a great reward from the Most Merciful (الرحمن, الرحيم), All-Generous (االجواد, الكريم), the All-Rich and free from any Needs (الغني), King and Possessor of the Heavens and the Earth (المالك).
Beyond that, Taqwa is also a consciousness driven by one’s Love of Allah, one’s thankfulness to Him and one’s genuine mercy and compassion of His slaves.
This is the quality that differentiates a person from true belief and hypocrisy; the one driver that allows one to make the right choice, even in the absence of others, even without ‘enforcement’ or ‘penalties’. The driver that makes one truly sincere in his actions, and in constantly improving oneself to become a better person.
So when Allah prescribes fasting for us, “لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ” (So that you may attain Taqwa), it is implying here that fasting is to achieve a holistic spiritual development to develop our consciousness in Allah. So what’s interesting for us to note is the significance of Allah singling out fasting as a great driver for spiritual development, some of which we may already be aware :
1. Feeling of hunger and pain for the sake of Allah – this directly builds taqwa: how often do we endure a little bit of hardship for the sake of Allah? Compare that to the level of hardship and effort we go through for our worldly matters – our jobs, our education, our businesses, our children, our achievements. Isn’t it more worthwhile to put in that little bit of hardship of His Reward?
2. Build shukr (thankfulness) and Generosity – to realize the difficulty of those less fortunate than us; while ‘empathizing with the poor’ is a rather strong term (because technically you’re not really empathizing when you know you have that banquet feast awaiting you in iftar).
Rather, this realization should also build a sense of generosity inside of us. And that is why in Ramadhan there is always a tendency to give out more charity on top of our obligatory zakat; in fact the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam), he himself was described as “the most generous of all the people, and he used to reach the peak in generosity in the month of Ramadan when (the angel) Gabriel met him” (Hadith narrated by ibn Abbas in Sahih Al-Bukhari).
3. Restraint from the Haram (prohibitions) – in fasting, you would restrain yourselves from what is normally halal (food and drink, intercourse with the spouse, etc) – so how silly would it be to do what is already haram anyway, regardless of whether you are fasting or not? Thus in that sense, committing sins during fasting is almost a form of hypocrisy, which should make us more conscious of our deeds.
4. Keeping your deeds secret – no one knows if you’re really fasting. You could always sink your teeth in a chocolate bar when no one’s watching, or when the parents or ‘authorities’ are out of sight. There’s nothing to restrain your actions except the consciousness of God, and this should be a reminder to us, that if Allah knows every morsel of food you secretly swallowed, then every other deed – whether it be in our words or actions – is even more Known to Him, the All-Seer, All-Hearer and All-Knowing.
5. Less vain talk, less gossip – lunch times, water cooler hangouts: the most ripe scenarios to gossip, backbite, slander, and waste our good deeds away as we oppress others with our speech. No more this month.
6. No “hot dates” – the universal method of "picking up" non-mahrams of the opposite gender (“let’s go out for a coffee”, “I’ll buy you dinner”, “lunch is on me”, etc) also becomes conveniently halted. Alhamdulillah
7. More time for the sake of Allah – You might not realize it, but eating and drinking takes up a lot of our time – precious time which can be much better utilized in good deeds and strengthening our taqwa.
It’s interesting to note that some scholars such as Imam An-Nawawi used to survive on the bare minimum food, as they savoured every minute of their lives for benefitting themselves and others around them; eating is considered wasting time, because in eating, you incur loss of productivity from – preparing the food, eating the food, increased toilet time, and increased sleeping time.
And that is perhaps also why the Prophet said, “'The human does not fill any container that is worse than his stomach. It is sufficient for the son of Adam to eat what will support his back. If this is not possible, then a third for food, a third for drink, and third for his breath." (Narrated by At-Tirmidzi and ibn Majah, graded sahih).
And these are just some of the many wisdoms behind how fasting develops our taqwa.
So this Ramadhan, let’s focus on deeds that can build our taqwa. Let’s not just have a ‘capitalistic’ “KPI-driven” quantitative approach to our good deeds – recite superfast Qur’an, or conduct super fast 20-rakaah taraweeh – how can this ever develop our taqwa?
When you recite, recite with tadabbur, with understanding, with genuine sincerity of wanting to understand the words of Allah. When you pray, pray with the consciousness that perhaps this may be your last prayer, and that this is your private time with Allah, Lord of the Universe. When you deal good with others, deal with them with the consciousness, that you want to earn the love of Allah, as our good akhlaq is something pleasing to Allah.
We want to develop ourselves spiritually in such a way that, after Ramadhan, our souls and hearts are ready to defeat the whisperings and temptations of Shaytan when they are released from their imprisonment after Ramadhan.
May Allah grant us a blessed Ramadhan, and may He make us amongst the Muttaqun (people of Taqwa), and may He grant us steadfastness to strive for the best Ramadhan of our lives that He is Pleased with. Amin
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