Are we achieving or missing the objectives of fasting?

As a consequence of the latest developments, some of the purely spiritual activities were not spared either.

For example, many mosques are virtually competing among themselves who will hire better and more popular preachers and Qur’an reciters, some of whom have become Muslim, either local or global, celebrities on account of what and how they do. They are often brought from distant and more glamorous places, spending considerable amounts of financial resources for the purpose.

The Qur’an is thus recited beautifully all the time, though little consideration is being given to its profound heavenly messages and their implications for thought and everyday life. The same goes to dhikr (remembrance of Almighty Allah) sessions, supplications (du’a) and nashids as spiritual songs and chants.

In many essentially non-Arab milieus, lots of people do not even know what is being recited, pronounced, supplicated and sung, and honestly, a few would ever care so long as the reciters, performers and singers do their job “professionally” and impressively, regularly shedding some tears as a tacit sign of piety and devotion, inducing in the process their audiences to follow suit.

Similarly, spiritual talks and lectures are often saturated – some more and others less – with humour, fun, anecdotes, legends, weak or outright fabricated traditions (hadith) of the Prophet (pbuh), and attempts to directly or indirectly tarnish the name and image of a person, group, community, political party, or a religious faction, so as to warrant the full attention of the listeners and make the talks and lectures more interesting, attractive and so, more effective.

This way, many religious preachers appear as though skilled performers and entertainers, trying to make their profession as much up-to-date and profitable as possible. Just like everyone else, they likewise do whatever is necessary, not only to keep the job they have, but also advance their career prospects. They are textbook populists, within their intellectual and moral framing representing and looking after the interests of the “pure people”.

Furthermore, the last third of Ramadan, instead of being most spiritually charged and infused with most intensive spiritual pursuits, normally becomes lost in consumerism and glitz on account of the approaching excessive Eid celebrations. All of a sudden, while fasting as a cultural manifestation gathers momentum, it, as an intended extraordinary spiritual experience, becomes anticlimactic.

Without doubt, our Ramadan is a month full of paradoxes and ironies. It is fraught with contentious attitudes and actions. The whole thing sometimes boils down to sheer numbers and statistics: how many pages or sections (juz’) of the Qur’an have been read a day, how many units of voluntary or supererogatory prayers (rak’ah) have been performed each day and night, how many ringgits/dollars/euros we have to give away as obligatory and how much we should as voluntary charity, how many times we have invited people for iftar and how many times we were invited, etc.

Sometimes one seriously wonders how much spirituality has been injected into those, in principle, extremely meritorious deeds. One further wonders if we emphasise too much quantity at the expense of quality, and the form and appearances at the expense of the substance and soul. By the same token, do we live, or just practise, Ramadan and its fasting obligation? Do we tend to feel and experience, or just survive, it?

Islam as a complete belief and value system, as well as a way of life, though respecting numerous elements of culture – above all such as are consistent with the Islamic heavenly message – inspired, initiated and guided the formation of new cultures. The fields of values, beliefs, epistemology, worldview and the fundamental aspects of the behavioural patterns that have thence originated, were affected most as they contained more universal and transcendent than local and physical character. At the same time, Islam recognises and accommodates natural as well as innate auxiliary elements of local cultures and traditions, chiefly when they are legitimate and in line with the principal teachings and values of Islam, treating them as a source of minor rulings where there are no explicit primary texts of the Qur’an and sunnah specifying the ruling.

Islam and life

The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Islam is built on five (pillars): bearing witness that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establishing prayer, paying zakah (a form of alms-giving), Hajj (pilgrimage) and fasting Ramadan” (Sahih al-Bukhari).

This hadith subtly presents the meaning of Islam and its relationship with life. We can understand that the pillars of Islam are one thing and its edifice another, the latter resting and depending on the former. They together form such a formidable unit that neither can exist without the other. No submission to, and worshipping of, Almighty Allah is possible on the basis of pillars and principles other than the five mentioned. In equal measure, the five pillars cannot generate, nor support, a behavioural pattern, or a life paradigm, other than Islam.

That being said, in the context of Ramadan and fasting, as one of the five pillars of Islam, fasting Ramadan is not an end in itself. It is a means whereby a higher set of goals and experiences are pursued and achieved: “…so that you may become righteous (pious, God-fearing or God-conscious) (la’allakum tattaqun)” (al-Baqarah, 183).

It does not mean that a fasting person by means of merely abstaining from eating food, drinking liquids, smoking cigarettes, and engaging in any s3xual activity, from dawn to sunset, will automatically procure all the benefits of fasting. That will all depend on what happens during fasting and afterwards in other existential spheres, which rest on fasting as one of the five pillars of Islam.

Fasting will be rewarded proportionately with its effects on a person’s behaviour and overall productivity in those spheres. Such is the meaning of taqwa as the ultimate objective of fasting. Also, such is the meaning of Islam as total submission to Almighty Allah, and the meaning of living life solely according to His Will and Decrees, which is called ‘ibadah (worship). Indeed, Islam is life, and life, as perceived and created by Allah the Creator and Master, in essence, is Islam.

It is thus grossly inappropriate if a fasting person’s tongue is not guarded against idle chatter, lying, gossiping, obscenity, rudeness, arguing and controversy; and his ears against everything reprehensible, for everything unlawful to utter is likewise unlawful to listen to; and his limbs and organs against all categories of sin. Imam al-Ghazzali reported that the Prophet (pbuh) said that “five things break a man’s fasting: lying, backbiting, gossiping, perjury and a lustful gaze”.

This means that it is not right that a person’s stomach fasts, but his talk, thoughts and some other vital organs and limbs do not. Nor is it right that a person’s physical part fasts, but his psychological and spiritual ones do not. Nor is it right, furthermore, that a person is good and pious during Ramadan, but adopts contradictory attitude and lifestyle after it.

Finally, nor is it right that a person is devout and God-fearing in pure religious matters and when dealing with pure religious institutions – whether during Ramadan or beyond it – but adopts another incongruous demeanour when dealing in other worldly matters and with other non-religious institutions.

This obvious inconsistency, containing unambiguous elements of hypocrisy, is unacceptable a course of action in Islam. It is an incomplete, yet outright, wrong. It sends out all the wrong signals as much to fellow Muslims as to non-Muslims. It is set to confuse and mislead, rather than enlighten and guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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