The month of Ramadan is upon us. During the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, fasting for the whole month has been made obligatory for all Muslims. By way of explanation, the Quran tells us: “Believers, fasting has been prescribed for you, just as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard yourselves against evil” (The Quran, 2:183). At another place, the Quran has this to say: “He desires you to fast the whole month, so that you may glorify Him for His having guided you and so that you may be grateful to Him.” (The Quran, 2:185) The question is, just by abstaining from food and drink during the day, can the spirit of piety and thankfulness be inculcated? Fasting actually pertains to the spirit of the action and not to its form. Every such action has spirit and not just form. Similarly, all obligatory rites of worship have spirit as well form. For instance, the spirit of prayer is humility.
Today’s Topic: The Spirit of Roza
This morning I was listening to a radio program on ‘democracy’. The professor hosting the program said that before ‘democracy’ we need to democratize the society; i.e. make the society democratic and than bring in democracy. Therefore, the topmost thing would be to make the society 100% literate as only then will people become aware and understand democracy.
According to me, the same is the case of roza, Before roza, the spirit of roza is required; otherwise people will keep roza but not gain anything in terms of spiritual enlightenment from it.
What is the Spirit of Roza?
The spirit of roza is the realization of Gods blessings. Food & water is abundantly available for everyone of us – even the poor. We, therefore, do not realize the importance of the blessing of food and water from God. When we keep a roza, we are compulsively put into a situation wherein we do not have food and water. In this way, we can realize this blessing of God. Therefore, a roza gives a compulsive experience of the blessings of God for people.
When people keep a roza, they eat a lot during sehri and afterwards when they do iftaar, they also eat a lot. This kills the spirit of roza as they do not experience hunger.
According to a hadith-e-qudsi, God says:
“O my people you are hungry except for those whom I give to eat”.
This hadith makes it clear that it is God who gives us food (and water) and the realization of this is the spirit of roza. When you have realization of this, than you realize everything.
According to a hadith:
“The reward of roza is the greatest”
This ‘greatest’ reward cannot be for a roza of mere form. This reward is for a roza full of the spirit of roza. Man should, therefore, realize this blessing and all other blessings of God. So, the spirit of roza is to realize the blessings of God.
Man is able to walk on earth due to its gravity and atmospheric pressure from the air above. Without both these, man would not have been able to walk. Both of these are blessings of God. So, it is due to God’s blessings that man is able to walk on earth.
Man gets a continuous supply of oxygen, sunlight, water, food, minerals – in the absence of which man would not have been able to survive. All these and much more are, therefore, blessings from God to man.
Man is distinct from animals in that he is capable of conceptual thinking – he consciously knows things. However, man being unaware, takes all of God’s blessings for granted and in the process does not realize God’s blessings. While all these blessings of God were to make man to consciously realize his true position vis-à-vis God – that of helplessness.
When a person consciously realizes that he is helpless and all the things that he has are a blessing of God, this realization fills his heart with thanksgivings for his Creator and he acknowledges God’s glory. This is the real certificate for entry into Paradise. The performance of mere rituals or mere utterances can never be enough.
We are told that we have to do niyat to keep roza. This, in essence, means to think before keeping a roza so that you are able to get the spirit of roza prior to keeping a roza.
According to the Quran:
The purpose of roza is to have taqwa.
A companion of the prophet asked what is taqwa? He was asked how he passed through a thorny patch. To this he replied, by holding his clothes close to his body and walking carefully through it. He was told, that is taqwa.
Therefore, taqwa means being cautious; i.e. adopting a cautious approach in life.
In our life, there are always temptations, provocations, satan’s attack, negativity, etc. So we have to be very sensitive to all these and live a life of cautiousness. We have to think before speaking, think before acting, etc. We have to live a self-controlled, disciplined and principled life otherwise we will not be able to reach our destination – we will get distracted and not be able to reach anywhere.
Roza has, therefore, been made mandatory so that we are trained – through restraining ourselves in taking food and drink – so that we can be trained to live a disciplined life. Once we are trained to live in this manner, we can adopt this to other aspects of our life.
People do not think before acting, while thinking makes a man conscious of all and living a life of unawareness reduces man to an animal-like existence.
We, therefore, have to decide whether we want to live a mindless existence like animals or a thoughtful life that befits man – that is taught compulsively to man by the keeping of rozas.
The real position of man is that he is living a life of a faqir. God is taking care of all of man’s needs through his universal organization of angels. The realization of his comes to man when he adopts the true spirit of roza.
It is, in fact, this realization that will develop that personality in man that will enable him to enter into Paradise. Those who develop such a personality will be eligible for Paradise while those who do not have this realization will not obtain entry into it.
May God help all of us to develop such a personality so that He enters us into Paradise.
Aqulo Qauli Haza Wa-astaghfirullaha li walakum ajmaeen
(I have said what I needed to say. I now seek forgiveness from God for you and all mankind)
