The School of One Month

   By Bader Malek, Ph.D.

Ramadan is the ninth month of Islamic calendar. According to the Islamic calendar that is based on lunar calendar, the year contains approximately 354 days, about eleven days less than a solar year.  This means that a Muslim will gradually fast in various seasons and different times throughout his lifetime.

In many aspects, Ramadan is a month of patience because it strengthens a person’s abilities by promoting sincere practicing of self-control and full submission to the will of God.  It is a way to inculcate morality, soothe the heart, elevate individuals (both male and female), reinforce social ties, and define the meaning of life in spiritual ways. In that full month a person trains and renews the body, mind, and soul.

 As one of five pillars of Islam, fasting during Ramadan means that, for the sake of God, the capable adult Muslim must abstain from all kinds of foods, drinks (even water), smoking, and sexual intercourse from dawn till sunset, during the entire month of Ramadan. Yet, avoiding sins and abstaining from derogatory language speech and immoral deeds is the most effective fasting one can perform properly.  Thus, a human in the Islamic perspective should struggle against low egotistic desires in order to purify himself or herself.

Probably the first thing one ought to consider in fasting during Ramadan is the profound appreciation of the principle of utmost sincerity towards God. No one can watch or check the fasting person except God, who knows completely all our actions in secret as well as in public. The first step to the path of paradise is sincerity.  Moreover, Ramadan aims to clarify the importance of sincerity and gratitude to God, as well as encourage people to give charity generously.  Sincerity and rightness of intention are the most important inward causes of all good outward actions.  Seeking reward from none but Allah must be a departure point toward doing good deeds, whether in serving people or worshipping God.  The Prophet of Islam says "actions are but by intention and every man shall have but that which he intended".

Because believers' supplication to God is a clear sign of human weakness and limitations, it is strongly recommended by Islam to perform extra prayers and to increase reciting the Qur’an (Koran), especially during the evenings of Ramadan.

Thus, helping others, being good to the orphans, fasting, remembering God, saying good words to our spouse, and visiting sick people are examples of worshipping if one does them for the sake of Allah .  God creates humans so that they obey and worship Him in that broad sense.  This is the purpose of life as God says in Qur’an, "I have only created jinn and men, that they may serve Me" (51:56).         

Ramadan is a great school in the sense that fasting prepares the faster to fulfill his humanity by controlling desires, in order to worship the Creator and not be a slave to desire.  When one considers the ethical aspects of Ramadan, which appear to be prevention and starvation, one finds it in reality to be aspects of protection from slavery of desires.

For Muslims, the month of Ramadan is a spiritual experience that provides time for reflection, doing good deeds, becoming re-connected to God, ending in a celebration of feasting and rejoicing.