T aqwa possesses
both a moral and a spiritual dimension. In respect of its moral dimension it
connotes moral rectitude which is the fruit of a Divinely-grounded vigilance,
on the one hand, and the purification of the heart (Tazkiyah)on the
other. Moral rectitude manifests itself in acts of commission (Awamir) and omission (Nawahi),
i.e. performing virtuous acts required by the moral code such as “giving alms
to the poor,” on the one hand, and refraining from evil acts (also prohibited
by the moral code) such as acts of bribery and corruption on the other. Allah Most
High declared in the Qur’an:
“Whosoever purifies (the nafs) has achieved
success. And whosoever corrupts it has failed.”
(Qur’an, al-Shams, 91:9-10)
The implication of these verses of the
Qur’an is that values must be recognized as one of the foundations of power. Indeed, there is a specific
confirmation of such an implication in the chronological sequence of the
revelation of the Qur’an.
After the migration from Makkah to
Madinah had been effected, and shortly after victory over the Quraish at Badr, Allah
Most High revealed the Surah entitled al-Anfal (the Spoils of War) in which He recalled the road which had
been travelled:
“Call to mind (that time) when you were a
small (band), weak, helpless (and vulnerable) in (your) territory, and afraid
that (hostile) people would finish you off. Then (Allah) provided you with (a
way to) safety and refuge, and empowered you with His aid, and provided you
with wholesome resources that you might be grateful.”
(Qur’an, al-Anfal, 8:26)
The power
to which Allah Most High referred was of course internal spiritual power, which
was manifest in the battle of Badr. And the manifestation of that power was of such strategic importance in
the Divine scheme that Allah went on to describe it as the Furqan, or
criterion, through which truth was distinguished from falsehood:
“O you who have attained to faith!
If you remain conscious of Allah, He will endow you with a standard by which to
discern the true from the false, and will efface your bad deeds, and will forgive
you your sins: for Allah is limitless in His great bounty.”
(Qur’an, al-Anfal 8:29)
He also declared:
“That it (the demonstration of power) might
serve to confirm Truth and expose falsehood, distasteful though it be to those
in guilt.”
(Qur’an, al-Anfal 8:8)
What is of critical importance for our
topic is the fact that Allah Most High chose a moment shortly before the month
of Ramadhan, in which the battle of Badr
was fought, to reveal the verses of the Qur’an which promulgated the compulsory
fast of Ramadhan. It should be clear as daylight that the fast of Ramadhan was instituted at that specific time that it might function
as a means through which the community might be empowered. If not, how can we
possibly explain the more-than 14 years long delay in promulgating the
institution of fasting? Would it not have been beneficial to the oppressed
Muslims of Makkah to have been given the fast of Ramadhan?
Would it not have enhanced their fortitude to resist the kuffar?
The fact that Allah Most High waited
for more than fourteen years, after the commencement of the revelation of the
Qur’an, to reveal the verses relating to the compulsory fast of Ramadhan, is a direct indication of the relationship which exists
between fasting and power.
There is a link between fasting and power. The link is that fasting not only
builds, but also, reinforces and consolidates values, and values form an
indispensable foundation of power. Also, since no nation, society or
civilization can ever rise to greatness without establishing and sustaining the
moral health of its people, it follows that the institution of fasting in
religion plays a role of crucial importance in nation-building and in the process
of establishing a healthy and enduring society and civilization. In fact the
Qur’an goes beyond this to claim that survival, in the historical process,
depends upon moral health. It does so when it declares (as mentioned earlier)
that:
“Those who purify themselves and permit the
proper growth and development of their moral being will succeed (in history as
well as in the Divine scheme of things). Those, on the other hand, who corrupt themselves
and, in the process, obstruct the growth and development of their moral being,
will eventually perish.”
(Qur’an, al-Shams, 91:9-10)
This holds true as much for the social
order, the nation, and civilization, as for the individual.
The Qur’an does not merely state this
thesis as a fact; it does more than that. It seeks to demonstrate the validity
of the thesis by inviting attention to the historical process at work in the
rise and fall of nations and civilizations. And in order to facilitate that
inquiry it narrates the history of certain nations and tribes which perished
because of moral corruption consequent upon the collapse of values.
In Surah al-Baqarah* of the Qur’an Allah Most High addressed those
who believe in that scripture as Divine revelation and informed them of the
promulgation of the compulsory fast for them. The verse then disclosed that
fasting was made compulsory for all those religious communities which preceded
the community of Muslims who follow Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).
“O you who have attained to faith! Fasting is
ordained for you as it was ordained for those before you, so that you might
remain conscious of Allah.”
(Quran, al-Baqara, 2:183)
Thus the compulsory fast is found in
the religious life of Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhist and others**. The
verse then ended by indicating that the objective for which the compulsory fast
was promulgated is the acquisition of piety and godliness (Taqwa).
[*It is interesting to observe that after the opening chapter
of the Holy Qur’an, which is itself named ‘Opening Chapter’, the next chapter
is entitled the Chapter of the ‘Cow’. While the choice of this name is linked
to the worship of the cow in Jewish history which is found in the chapter (Qur’an, al-Baqarah,2:67-71), it also has great significance for Hindus who consider the
cow to be a holy animal. Now the choice of the cow, which performs the wondrous
feat of eating grass and producing milk, as a holy animal, can be considered to
have been a preliminary step in the evolution of the religious copiousness,
leading eventually to the recognition of all animals as sacred.
Similarly the choice of the Ganges as a holy river and Bharat as a holy land
would lead eventually to the recognition of everything in
this universe as holy and sacred. And this is a position which can only truly
be sustained with the recognition of the world as real and as Allah’s creation.
Secondly, the world and all it contains must be recognized to be functioning as
a medium which leads the developed religious consciousness to Allah Most High.
And this, of course, is the position of Islam itself which embraces a spiritual
interpretation of the universe, a universe which overflows with the ‘Signs of
Allah’ (the Ayah
Allah). And the Signs of Allah Most High
lead directly to Allah Himself.
** David is mentioned in the Bible as having fasted for
seven days (Samuel
12:16-17). Moses fasted in order to show
gratitude to Allah for the deliverance of the Israelites from Pharaoh and also
for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus
16:29). Jesus Christ not only kept fasts but
also commanded his followers to fast (Mathew 6:15-17, Luke 5:33-35, Acts 13:23). May Allah’s blessings be upon them all.]
The Qur’anic viewpoint therefore, is
that fasting has always been an obligatory feature of the religious way of
life. By instituting the compulsory fast for the religious community which
followed Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him),
the Qur’an simply brought religious life amongst Muslims into a state of
conformity with an essential requirement of the religious way of life.
When the Qur’an went on to point out
that the basic objective of fasting was the acquisition of piety and holiness (Taqwa), it followed that this must also have
been the basic objective of fasting in all previous religious communities established
by the thousands of Prophets and guides sent by Allah Most High to every nation
and tribe (Qur’an, al-Ra’d,
13:7).
An immediate implication of this
conclusion is that no religion (which claims to be founded on the One Truth)
can or should condone the exploitation of the institution of fasting as a
political weapon or a form of protest. And yet, in 1986, the Foreign Minister
of Nicaragua, who was a Catholic priest, completed three weeks of a
fast-unto-death in a protest against the policies of the government of the
United States of America towards the Sandanista government in Nicaragua. In
much the same way the Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi, who was a devout Hindu
and a role-model of modern reform Hinduism, used fasting as a political weapon
in his struggle against British rule in India.
Piety and godliness, therefore, is the
criterion with which we judge the institution of fasting as it functions, not
only in the religious community established by Nabi Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), but in all other
religions and religious communities.
It is only when fasting inculcates
piety and godliness that it functions in accordance with its original purpose.
When it does not or, rather, no longer does, then a deviation has occurred. And
it behoves the followers of the deviant religion to struggle to retrieve the
original objective of fasting.
While the majority of Muslims, the
world over, observe the compulsory fast of Ramadhan, we
find in this age the unique phenomenon of large numbers of Muslims who do not
fast. When we inquire into this phenomenon what we find is that it has emerged
almost exclusively as a result of a considerable impact of modern Western
civilization on such Muslims.
This is not surprising since modern
Western civilization, which is largely constructed on secular and materialistic
foundations, does not attach much practical value to piety and God-consciousness.
As a consequence one comes across people who find it inconvenient to fast
because it interferes with the efficient fulfilment of their professional
obligations. Indeed a former President of Tunisia attempted to prohibit the compulsory
Islamic fast because he claimed that it had a negative impact on productivity
and thus constituted an obstacle to economic growth and prosperity. Others who
have imprisoned themselves in the comforts and luxuries of modern sensate
culture (which is a feature of Western rather than Christian civilization) find
fasting to be either too rigorous or just plain inconvenient. While we shall be
attempting a rational exposition of the benefits to be derived from fasting, we
should also urge such Muslims to take serious note of the fact that fasting was
made compulsory by Allah Most High Himself.
Any Muslim who challenges the
compulsory fast and holds the view that he is under no obligation to fast would
be in a state of defiance and rebellion against Allah; and since Islam connotes
submission to the Will of Allah Most High, it
should be obvious that such a person would not be in Islam, in the true sense
of the word, and hence would not be a Muslim.
Indeed, such a Muslim places himself
outside the religious way of life altogether since the Qur’an declares:
“And whosoever desires a religion
other than Islam, never will it be accepted from him, and in the life to come
he shall be among the lost.”
(Qur’an, aal-’Imran, 3:85)
On the other hand, the Muslim who
recognizes the obligatory nature of fasting and yet does not observe the compulsory
fast because of laziness, inconvenience, or whatever reason is, in fact,
committing a sin and must expect to be punished by Allah Most High for it.
Similarly, since fasting was made compulsory for those religious communities which
preceded the advent of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam), and since the previous
divinely-revealed laws of fasting were cancelled and abrogated and then
replaced in the Qur’an with the Fast of Ramadhan:
“Any message which, We annul or consign to
oblivion We replace with a better or a similar one. Dost thou not know that
Allah has the power to will anything?”
(Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:106)
It
follows that the followers of those religions will also incur Allah’s
punishment if they, too, fail to observe the compulsory fast of Ramadhan.
The Muslim world must be reminded
that the Qur'an has ordered Muslims to build power with which to deter enemies:
“Hence, make ready against them whatever power
and war mounts (i.e., military equipments) you are able to muster, so that you
might deter thereby the enemies of Allah, who are your enemies as well, and
others besides them of whom you may be unaware, (but) of whom Allah is aware;
and whatever you may expend in Allah’s cause shall be repaid to you in full,
and you shall not be wronged.”
(Qur’an, al-Anfal, 8:60)
Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) is reported to have warned that “each of you is a shepherd, and
each of you will be questioned concerning his flock of sheep.” If a shepherd
does not possess the knowledge required for rearing sheep he may not know where
he should take the sheep to graze. When the sheep begin to stray he may not
know how to go after them and bring them back into the flock. And when the
wolves begin to circle the sheep, he may not know how to protect the sheep.
Indeed there are Muslim shepherds in North America who are innocently leading
their sheep directly to the wolves. Such are the Muslim leaders who engage in
amateur Ijtihad and
who then pronounce that bank interest is not Riba
(usury) and hence Halal. The situation in the world of Islam is even worse. There
are many Muslim countries today where the shepherds have been dismissed and
wolves are ruling over the sheep!
The present book is written primarily
for the benefit of the shepherds of the Muslim community around the world. It
is our hope and prayer that they will subject it to careful and critical
attention, Insha’ Allah, and that it may be of benefit to them.
Amin.
The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) also said that
Islam was built on a five-fold foundation. Amongst these five “pillars” is the
fast of Ramadan. In
this paper an attempt is made to demonstrate how the fast of Ramadhan functions as a “pillar” or a “foundation” of the house of
Islam, rather than just a “window” or a “door.”
More than fifty thousand Muslim women
in Bosnia in Europe were raped and ravaged in the age of Pax Americana by bitter enemies of Islam who behaved
like a pack of mad dogs. Concentration camps housed Muslim men in Bosnia.
Muslims were starved to death. Sarajevo was relentlessly bombarded for more
than two years. The world witnessed genocide in Srebrenica when in July 1995
some 8000 Muslim Bosnians – men and boys – were slaughtered by Serbian Armed
Forces under the command of a Serbian general.
The Muslims of Kashmir have been
brutally oppressed and terrorized for more than fifty years, ground to the very
dust by more than half-a-million Indian armed forces that are now allies of
Israel in the newly emerging Pax Judaica
(that is replacing Pax
Americana). Kashmiri women,
like their counterparts in Bosnia, suffer the same rape in the broad daylight
of history from those who have very clearly identified themselves as unrelenting
enemies of Islam and Muslims.
In Palestine, Muslims have suffered
such extreme oppression at the hands and feet of racist Euro-Jewish Zionist colonizers,
and have been reduced to such a weak and helpless situation that they were
forced to resort to an intifada
of stones!
What has the world of Islam done about
Bosnia, Kashmir, Palestine, the NATO occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and so many
other bleeding stab wounds on the body of the Ummah?
Muslims around the world have been agonizing while their Excellencies,
Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers of
Government who rule over the Muslims, went home, had dinner, and went to sleep!
Even sincere Muslim leaders have simply been too weak to do anything more than
protest the hypocrisy of the West and the indifference of fellow Muslim
leaders.
The Muslim world must be reminded that
the Qur’an has ordered Muslim to build power with
which to deter enemies:
“Hence, make ready against them whatever force
and war mounts you are able to muster, so that you might deter thereby the
enemies of Allah, who are your enemies as well, and others besides them of whom
you may be unaware, [but] of whom Allah is aware; and whatever you may expend
in Allah’s cause shall be repaid to you in full, and you shall not be wronged.”
(Qur’an, al-Anfal, 8:60)
Muslims have also been ordered to
respond to aggression:
“Permission [to fight] is given to those
against whom war is being wrongfully waged and, verily, Allah has indeed the
power to succour them…” “Those who have been driven from their homelands
against all right for no other reason than their saying: “Our Sustainer is
Allah!” For, if Allah had not enabled people to defend themselves against one
another, all monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques – in [all of]
which Allah’s name is abundantly extolled – would surely have been destroyed
[ere now]. And Allah will most certainly succour him who succours His cause:
for, verily, Allah is most Powerful, Almighty, [well aware of] those who, [even]
if We firmly establish them on earth, remain constant in prayer, and give in
charity, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong;
but with Allah rests the final outcome of all events.
(Qur’an, al-Hajj, 22:39-41)
And they have been ordered to liberate
the oppressed:
“And how could you refuse to fight
in the cause of Allah and of the utterly helpless men and women and children who
are crying, “O our Sustainer! Lead us forth [to freedom] out of this land whose
people are oppressors, and raise for us, out of Thy grace, a protector, and
raise for us, out of Thy grace, one who will bring us succour!”
(Qur’an, al-Nisa 4:75).
In the process of building power and using power for performing such functions, Muslims
would create conditions which would facilitate the recognition of the Truth of
Islam by non-Muslim humanity:
“And, lo, Allah gave you the promise
that one of the two [enemy] hosts would fall to you: and you would have liked
to seize the less powerful one, whereas it was Allah’s will to prove the truth
to be true in accordance with His words, and to wipe out the last remnant of those
who denied the truth, so that He might prove the truth to be true and the false
to be false, however hateful this might be to those who were lost in sin.
(Qur’an, al-Anfal 8:7-8).
How do we restore power to the Ummah? What is the Qur’anic view of power? Is wealth a foundation of power? If it were, then the rich peoples’
army would not have been defeated by the army of the refugees at Badr! Are weapons the foundations of power? If they were then the well-armed
force of the Quraish would not have been defeated by the
lightly armed Muslims at Badr! Nor would a super-power, the United States
of America, have been defeated in Vietnam.
What, then, are the foundations of power? Wealth, and weapons technology
(including nuclear weapons), and the strength of numbers, are all important to power but do not constitute the foundations.
Our understanding is that the foundations of power
are located in freedom, knowledge, values, faith, unity (and fraternity),
discipline and leadership.
For example, the Muslim Community under
the direct leadership of the Prophet (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam) was not given permission to fight until
they had power. But permission never came while they
were still in Makkah. It came only after the Hijrah to Madinah and only after the conclusion of the Treaty (Mithaq) of
Madinah which gave to them political freedom. That political freedom assured
for them the freedom to submit, individually and collectively, privately and
publicly, to the supreme authority of Allah (subhanahu
wa ta’alah).
Today that freedom has been lost.
Muslims are now obliged, even in the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran, to submit
to the supreme authority of enemies of Islam who control the Security Council
of the United Nations Organization. That is the implication of membership in
the Zionist-created United Nations Organization.
But of greater importance to us in the
context of this essay is the realization that a Muslim cannot pursue an effort
for restoring external freedom unless he first has achieved internal freedom.
Only that Muslim is truly internally free who lives for Allah (subhanahu wa ta’alah). Everything he
does, he seeks to please Allah Most High. It matters not whether the world is pleased
or displeased with him. What the world thinks of him is irrelevant to how he
determines the life he should live. Only such a Muslim is free! Most Muslims
alive today in the modern world of Dajjal, have become slaves of the worldly life i.e., al-Duniyah. Some are slaves of their US
Passports, Visa, Green Cards, etc. Others have become slaves of their jobs or businesses
which give them a comfortable life. As a consequence of that enslavement they
lack the freedom to wage a struggle against injustice and oppression even
within the world of Islam.
The Qur’an has delivered a very stern
warning to such Muslims:
“Say: If it be that your fathers,
your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred; the wealth that ye have gained;
the commerce in which ye fear a decline: or the dwellings in which ye delight –
are dearer to you than Allah, or His Messenger, or the striving in His cause; then
wait until Allah brings about His decision: and Allah guides not the
rebellious.”
(Qur’an, al-Tauba, 9:24)
Fasting is one of the most effective
institutions for realizing that freedom. It is of crucial importance that we reflect
upon the fact that the fast of Ramadhan was not imposed upon the Muslims until
just before the battle of Badr when they had to fight for the first
time! That timing was not by accident!
In a Hadῑth Al-Qudsi, Allah Most High has declared:
“Fasting is for Me, and I will
respond to it with any reward (howsoever great) I choose to bestow.”
The lesson here is so simple and yet so
powerful. If we can fast for Allah it opens the way for us to live for Allah
and for Allah alone, regardless of the price we may have to pay. Only those who
live for Allah would die for Allah; and therein is located the foundations
of power.
Thus, what this essay does, most of
all, is to provide for the discerning reader a glimpse of how the fast of Ramadhan contributes towards the individual and collective
realization of all the foundations of power.
We must enter a note of warning
concerning the increasing number of secularized Muslims who are emerging in our
midst who are either careless and indifferent with regards to the fast of Ramadhan, or who do not consider it necessary to observe the fast at
all. Such Muslims should understand, before it is too late, that it is in the
nature of the secular society to dilute, to weaken, and to eventually render irrelevant,
the distinction between the Truth (al-Haq)and falsehood (al-Batil), that which is permitted by Allah (al-Halal) and
that which is prohibited by Allah (al-Haram), between conduct which is virtuous (al-Ma’ruf)and conduct which is sinful (al-Munkar).
Without being fully aware of it, the
secularized Muslim eventually lives a life which is in no way moulded and conditioned
by the rewards of Heaven (al-Jannah)and
the punishments of Hell (Jahannam). Indeed,
secularized Muslims eventually lose consciousness of what is sin.
In the secular society it is not the
word of Allah Most High which is the measure (al-Mizan)of all
things. Rather man positions himself at the centre of his universe, and he
becomes the measure of all things. He determines what is right and what is wrong. His reason sits in judgment on anything which claims to be the Word of
Allah. And when the Word of Allah does not appear to conform to man’s rational
predilections then the word of Allah must either be rewritten, or rejected or,
worse, subjected to a progressive
interpretation! This
is called the secularization of religion. And this is the terrible fate which has
befallen Judaism and Christianity in the modern western civilization, and this
fate arrived at the very doorstep of the Muslims when European Judeo-Christian
armies colonized the world of Islam at the very point of a zealot’s sword.
This fate was inevitable for Jews and
Christians because they had distorted the revealed Truth. But it would be inexcusable
for Muslims because the revealed Truth in the Qur’an is protected by Allah Most
High Himself. And the basic understanding of that Truth is located in the
explanations provided by the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah
Most High be upon him), in his personal example (Sunnah), and the model of a sacred society
which he created!
In order to protect themselves from
being completely absorbed and integrated into the new sophisticated secular Jahiliyyah
(i.e., ignorance of Truth revealed by
Allah), such secularized Muslims should make haste to learn the lesson that Islam
presents to humanity an alternative model of life and of society, a model which
is a rival to today’s secular model. In Islam’s sacred model of living, this
world acquires meaning only with reference to that transcendental world from
which emerges Al-Haq, Al-Halal and Al-Ma’ruf.
When we understand how this world relates to that world then this world, also, becomes scared. Life
becomes sacred. And woman becomes sacred i.e., for men. Only then can we fathom
the status of woman in the sacred model of life. We can then respond to the
challenge posed by the secular model which, in naïvely seeking to liberate
woman, is presiding over the greatest destruction of the peace and happiness of
women ever witnessed in history.
Through fasting we enhance our state of
harmony with the sacred life and the sacred world! The sacred life is a life which
is lived for the purpose of pleasing Allah Most High. That is the way we should
live. That is the road to power.
We pray that the reader may benefit
from the information and analysis presented here and, in particular, that
secularized Muslims who have stopped fasting may be persuaded to return to the
life of the sacred and to the institution of fasting which does so much to
remind us of the unseen world and to fortify us with the values which come from
that unseen world. Without values the only future mankind can expect is one of unhappiness
and frustration, and tragedy after tragedy!
May
Allah accept our humble service in the cause of His Revealed Truth – Truth
which can bring peace and contentment, fulfillment and success to otherwise
barren lives, as well as to the now-collapsing social order.
