Ramadhan, Qur’an, and Piety
With the advent of the blessed month of Ramadhan, we are going to stand another
chance for being showered with its unparalleled blessings and benefits.
Due to our limitations and shortcomings, we can neither truly bring into our imagination the
heights of its glory, nor can really enumerate all its blessings.
With its description by the Prophet (Allah’s mercy and peace be upon him) as a ‘great month’ and a
‘blessed month,’ we can, however, conceive of the greatness of this month.
Why Ramadhan is so great a month
This month has in its folds one such night that is better than a thousand months –
Allah’s mercies and blessings that are normally showered in thousands of months
are all showered in one night. This is the night in which Our Lord gave us His
biggest gift, the Qur’an: “We revealed it (the Clear Book) on a Blessed Night.”1
What is this “Clear Book”? It is a “Mercy from your Lord.”2
Not just this night, but every day of this month is blessed and every night is blissful.
When the day dawns, it gives an opportunity to scores of people to abstain from
pleasures and rightful demands of flesh and blood in order to show their
obedience to Allah and eagerness to attain His closeness. They stand witness to
the fact that Allah alone is their Lord and object of their efforts; that the real thirst
in life is the desire to obey and submit to Him; and that getting His pleasure
quenches this thirst. When the night envelopes everything in its fold, it provides an
opportunity to scores of people to stand in His court, His light, and enrich
themselves by reciting from His Book as well as through supplications to Him. Thus,
their hearts get illuminated as stars in the sky:
“His light may be likened to a niche wherein is a lamp, and the lamp is in the crystal
which shines in star-like brilliance… (Such) people are those whom neither
commerce nor striving after profit diverts them from remembering Allah, from
establishing prayer, and from paying Zakat.”3
That every moment of this month is blissful is reflected in value enhancement of all
good deeds in it. The value of supplementary acts of worship and good action reaches the value of obligatory deeds,
and the value of obligatory deeds increases up to 70 times.4
The downpour of Allah’s blessings and mercy begins with the
auspicious arrival of Ramadhan; doors of heaven are opened and taking up the
path of goodness becomes easy; doors of hell are closed and fasting becomes a
shield against evil, taking up the path of evil becomes difficult; Satan is chained so
that his chances of spreading evil become limited.5
The Prophet (pbuh) has given glad tidings that a person who observes fasting
during the month of Ramadhan will stand purified from all his past sins; similarly, a
person who stands in the night for prayers will also be purified of his sins; and a
person who seeks the Night of Power during the last decade of Ramadhan with
prayers and supplications will also be purified. The only condition is that he should
believe in the words and promises of his Lord, Allah Almighty, obey Him in all times
and climes with fortitude while always remaining conscious of his own self and the
importance of self-accountability.6
1 Al-Qur’an 34:3
2 Al-Qur’an 34:6
3 Al-Qur’an 24:35,37
4 Al-Baihaqi, narrated by the Prophet’s Companion Salman al-Farisi
5 Al-Bukhari, narrated by the Prophet’s Companion Abu Hurairah
6 Al-Bukhari and al-Muslim, narrated by Abu Hurairah