When Muslims talk to non-Muslims or those who don’t know much about Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, questions usually abound about Believers not eating or drinking during daylight hours for 30 days.
Many have heard Muslims do not eat, drink or engage in sexual relations with their spouses during the day while observing Ramadan.
Questioners may relate to the physical aspects of Ramadan and how hard these practices may be. But they don’t necessarily understand a much more important aspect of Ramadan that truly drives the Believer:
That’s the spiritual aspect of the Islamic practice, which is mandatory in the Holy Qur’an, the book of scripture of the Muslims. Those who are sick or on a journey, children, and women under different circumstances are exempted from fasting.
Believers do not see the physical aspects of Ramadan as punishments, though they may be challenging. They see Ramadan as a beautiful time of reflection, rejuvenation and reset.
It is a time to step back from the hectic challenges of living in this world to focus on the divine Supreme Being, further develop our own divinity and strengthen our discipline. Fasting is a prescription whose physical aspects help our spiritual selves advance, flourish and heal.
Vain discourse, profanity, arguments, disunity, ugly thoughts, fighting (except in self-defense) and ill behavior are especially banned during Ramadan, where the focus is on prayer, peace and profound acts of kindness.
It is a time of intense introspection. We examine ourselves, our motives, our deeds and even our diets as we tend to eat healthier. Often family, friends and co-workers join us in practicing fasting or other aspects of Ramadan as we share what these beautiful days are about.
Believers in Islam who may have fallen off in their practice use Ramadan to get back into practice or to at least join nearly two billion Muslims around the world in the fast, which occurs on the ninth month of the lunar calendar.
Muslims celebrate the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, children receive gifts, and we come together in fellowship, especially for “iftar,” our daily meal to break the fast.
“During this month of Ramadan, each day we are to read one-thirtieth of the Qur’an so that by the end of Ramadan, we shall have completed the reading of the whole of the Holy Qur’an,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, in a message delivered on “The Final Call Prayer Line” during the holy month of Ramadan in 2010.
“This is a very special month of prayer and fasting and sacrifice that is prescribed by Allah to give us the discipline necessary by forsaking the things that are natural: food, water, and sexual relations with our spouses during the daylight hours.
“Surely, if we can master hunger, and thirst, and the drive for sexual co-habitation throughout the hot days of summer, then it will be easier for us to leave off lying and stealing, gambling, the use of drugs, or anything that is unnatural that takes us away from the pure service and worship of Allah.
So this Ramadan will be the Ramadan to break bad habits, and start to making new, good ones—breaking the grip on those things that we thought had a hold on us that we couldn’t stop,” Minister Farrakhan continued.
Even the physical act of fasting, voluntarily withholding food and drink from the body, brings spiritual lessons. The experience allows us to feel what those in society go through who have little or nothing.
When we can enjoy a refreshing glass of water at sundown, we consider those whose lives are hard and who are deprived of basic things, like a cool glass of water.
So as our physical thirst is quenched, our desire for a just society where no one suffers is not. That leaves us with a fire inside to work for and even fight for reforming society and bringing freedom, justice and equality to everyone.
When we sit down with family, friends and fellow Believers to enjoy our evening meal, we think about our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza sitting among tons of rubble to have a humble, meager meal.
They are resisting U.S.-backed Israeli genocide where thousands have been slaughtered. Yet they have not cursed God, nor abandoned their faith in Him.
Their stance is inspiring and produces more than a moment of sentimental solidarity in response. We speak out against this crime against humanity, as we pray to Allah (God) to deliver justice.
When we go out to feed the poor, another hallmark of Ramadan, once again we see the terrible conditions under which our people suffer in a decadent, racist and oppressive society. Our people see Muslims coming forward to serve them in a special way that connects with a consistent effort to raise them up from a degraded position.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has provided thousands of free Ramadan meals in recent years and will sponsor thousands more this year. The men and women of the Nation of Islam (F.O.I. and M.G.T.) will take this free food to our people alongside the spiritual food contained in The Final Call newspaper.
Local Nation of Islam mosques and study groups will deliver meals, toiletries and other necessities to our people this Ramadan as well.
As Minister Farrakhan observed: “In the Bible, Jesus said, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. And glorify our Father which art in heaven.’ What is our ‘good work?’
Our good work is to spread a Word that gives Life to our people, the same Word that gave Life to us. Our duty is to become Messengers of that Message; and learning that Message, studying that Message, and reaching into that Message that came first to the Black man and woman of America.
And then learning the Universal Application of that Message, and bringing it from here to the ends of the Earth.”
