Ramadan is the month that is granted to the fortunate. In it, if a person wishes, he can change his life and his destiny. The month of Ramadan tells us the ways to make the coming life easier. But today’s Muslim is a seasonal Muslim. According to the season, he talks about Islam in Ramadan, but does not act upon those things. Many TV channels and newspaper columns write and present very beautiful religious talks, yet very few people practically benefit from them.
The reason for this is that until a person makes his intention from the heart, any of his actions are merely a show. Among us, hearts are filled with impurities. Bitter words are on the tongue and thoughts filled with anger revolve in our minds. When we talk about halal and haram, our attention goes to food and drink, whereas halal and haram begin with the gaze and then with intention. We never think whether the money we are earning is halal or haram. Yet we set out to buy halal food with haram money. And those who do good deeds also sometimes forget that anger is haram, and even those righteous people do not eliminate that haram anger.
In the month of Ramadan, the first thing that Allah Almighty tells a person is to feel for other human beings. That is why Allah Almighty has commanded to give zakat, so that through the zakat you give, the lives of others may become better. Now, in order to collect this zakat, various institutions make their full effort, and to make this effort successful, they put up the picture of a poor person and collect donations on it. Or they feed a poor person at iftar or sehri and make them sit on the streets to receive praise. In Islam it is said: honor people in the way you would like to be honored; feed them what you yourself eat, clothe them with what you yourself wear. But these are the people who have gained fame in this world, by having themselves acknowledged as pious. Every person says that he is pious, so why is evil happening in the world?
In Ramadan, the Holy Qur’an was revealed by Allah Almighty so that we may read it, understand it, and improve our lives. But we have wrapped this Qur’an in cloth and made it an adornment of high shelves. And when we read it, we did not understand it. The reason is that Arabic is not our mother tongue, nor do we learn it in the way it has been said: read, but read with understanding. Our people read the Qur’an, but most do not understand it. Whereas it is the mercy and blessing of Allah Almighty that throughout the world, in different times, it has been translated, only so that people may read it, understand it, and change their lives.
The despair that has spread throughout the world today is because there is no real belief in Allah, though verbally people say that they believe in Allah. Prayers are never fulfilled merely by the tongue. A prayer is fulfilled only when it comes from the heart. Prayers that come from the heart are accepted one hundred percent. We have never learned from the incidents mentioned in the Qur’an, although Allah Almighty has stated these incidents and written them in the Qur’an so that we may take guidance from them until the Hereafter. Allah even gave punishment for despair to a Prophet. When Hazrat Yunus (peace be upon him) became weary of his people and left them, Allah became very displeased and a storm surrounded his boat.
At that time Hazrat Yunus (peace be upon him) came to know that Allah Almighty had said: O Yunus, why did you despair? And Yunus, until We had given the command, why did you leave your people? That is why Yunus (peace be upon him) was swallowed by a fish. There Hazrat Yunus (peace be upon him) asked Allah for forgiveness, and Allah forgave him and brought him out of the belly of the fish. The meaning of this whole incident is that we should never lose hope and should continue doing good deeds, no matter what the circumstances are. At the same time, we should also learn that the doors of repentance are always open and we should always repent, with the conviction that Allah Almighty forgives us. We should keep the belief that despair is a sin, because Allah Almighty hears every person, even if he is mute; He also hears the mute.
In this Ramadan, read the Holy Qur’an with translation and change your life. Do not say that there is a great difference between today’s world and the earlier world. For today’s world, the earlier world, and the coming world, Allah Almighty has blessed us with the favor of the Holy Qur’an. And whoever reads the Qur’an with understanding will succeed not only in this world, but also in the Hereafter.
