The Value of Fasting in Islam

The blessed month of Ramadan is a favour of Allah for Muslims, but it would be a great benefit [to us] only when it is taken into account. Otherwise it would be nothing for us. It is foolish to shout “Ramadan, Ramadan!” and then that’s all. In a Hadith it is said, “If people knew what Ramadan is, then they would want the whole year to be Ramadan.”

It is also said in another Hadith that fasting during Ramadan and in addition three days of each month keeps bad intentions and doubts away from the heart.

Now it had to bring great blessings, especially the fast of Ramadan - so that the Sahaba (ra) even in wartime during Ramadan would take all the precautions to observe the fast.

Hazrat Salman (ra) relates that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) at the end of the month of Shabaan, gave them a speech saying: “O people! You are going to enter an important month, a blessed month, a month that contains a night that is better than a thousand months. Allah has made its fast compulsory and the prayers made during its nights supererogatory. Anyone who does a good supererogatory deed in it is like someone who observes a compulsory action outside this month. 

Anyone who performs a compulsory action in it is like someone who performs 70 compulsory actions outside of Ramadan. It’s a month of patience. Patience will be rewarded with admission to paradise. It is a month of mutual consolation, a month in which the subsistence granted to the believer is increased. Anyone who gives a faster something to break their fast in it will get forgiveness of their sins and freedom from hell. He will be rewarded for this act without his initial reward being reduced.”

The Virtues of Ramadan Fasting

Why Fasting ? 

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ ۝

“O you who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may become righteous.” (Al-Baqara 2 :184)

Each year, for a month, more than a billion Muslim believers around the world fast between dawn and dusk. During these fasting hours, they are strictly prohibited from consuming any food, drink, or having intimate relationships between spouses, among other deprivations. Why?

First, what Ramadan fasting is not: it does not have the character of penance, as in other religions.

From the Muslim perspective, it enjoys with God an unparalleled grace with other acts of piety. It is an abstinence which concerns the body and the spirit and/or mind. Indeed, God has given us a brain, a marvellous mind in wonder; our body itself is a perpetual miracle. Our body, our ideas, our decisions are led by our spirit. The better the food of the spirit, the better our faculties and capacities of judgement, of evaluation, the better will be our initiatives. Fasting is thus perceived as total submission to God.

Ramadan Mubarak 2020

My dear Muslim brothers, sisters and children,
Assalamoualaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakaatuhu.

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, a blessed month is coming to us in the hope that we, weak creatures that we are, we maximize our time in the worship of the true God, the Unique One, Who has no associate. The month of Ramadan has come once again, and it has come in a critical moment where many countries are on lockdown and facing much difficulties due to the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19.

Our duty as a Muslim is to help save the lives of people, and to act generously, with utmost kindness to re-establish the world order as envisioned by our Noble Creator. Allah has given you all an opportunity to turn to Him with great humility and to beg Him of His mercy and favours. Allah is All-powerful and kind. He has the power to change things, and for this, He has vested us with the power of invocations, and He has made incumbent on Himself to respond to the call of His callers who are true, sincere and devoted to His cause, especially in this era of Divine Manifestation.

Gadgets and Life Balance

In a special Message on 22 April 2020, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hazrat Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (atba) of Mauritius exhorts everyone of us- youths and children of the Jamaat, as well as their parents- to be aware of the harmful effects of 'addiction' to electronic gadgets: smartphones, earphones, digital entertainment, etc. As technology 'machines' help in simplifying daily tasks in several, different ways; one can easily appreciate their instrumental value. Yet, it is also critical to strike a correct and fine balance in our approach to these machines. In our gadget-driven world of hyper-connectivity, the omnipresence of smartphones as 'entertainment' machines raises special challenges for impressionable children. Being glued to these gadgets can cause the deeply-vulnerable youths to lose focus on the issues that matter; setting them on a path of 'alternate reality' where they become oblivious of their true surroundings. The widely-observed contemporary phenomenon of lack of respect, and rift in relations between young-adults and their parents; tension and turmoil in family and social life, etc. can be explained in terms of such harmful addictions and negative influences. To secure our ethical values and to reclaim balance in individual and social life, it is essential to adopt a correct approach to technology devices and what they bring on the table, points out Hadhrat Khalifatullah (atba) in this discourse. 

Read the Special Address Below: