Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic Calendar, is of great significance. Muslims worldwide believe that it’s a Holy month of ample scientific or spiritual benefits and of handful gains. They observe this as a month of fasting as well as of spiritual reflection, improvement and increased devotion and worship.

Here we discuss some points of significance of this month of great blessings-

The Preparation

As this is the month of increased worship, all Prophets and Rasuls spent more time in prayers during this month. Almighty Allah referred to its greater significance, sacredness and prominence than rest other months in many ways. We can get a clear idea of that if we look at our Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) life and his activities in this Holy month.

It was described in Hadith that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) used to take preparation for Ramadan from the month of Shaban. If Ramadan is set aside, he used to fast more with increased worships in this month. That used to be his early preparation to cope with the sudden changes in daily activities, increased prayers and added religious practices during Ramadan. His followers could easily predict the arrival of Ramadan by his behavior.

Allah’s Forgiveness

Allah loves His creations a lot. For the sake of his great affection to us, we always get blessed by His forgiveness. No matter how many times we fall prey to great mistakes or sins, Allah - The All-Merciful excuses us providing another chance to come back to the right way.

Ramadan is such a chance for us to become free from all our sins and sufferings. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) stated that Allah balances all our mistakes or bad deeds between two prayers. If any mistake remains, Allah adjusts them between two Jummas and still if there are some unknowing sins or mistakes even after trying a lot to get free from them, the Almighty forgives them all (all sins of a year) between two Ramadans if we welcome and accept this Holy month with a true heart. SubhanAllah!! This is such a great kindness and love of our Almighty Creator for us. Allah wants to make us innocent and so we get a month in every year to go through a process to make ourselves innocent or free from all sins.

An Opportunity to Purify Ourselves

The way a machine needs servicing for better performances, we, the human beings, need to go through the same process of purifying our souls. Otherwise, we may become distracted and get lost in immense sufferings and bad luck. Holy Ramadan is such a time when we get a chance to transform our illnesses into sound health, our sufferings into great inner peace or our frustrations into great success. By following some specific manners or etiquettes with some added religious practices throughout the month we end up being flawless and innocent by the grace of Allah. By doing so, we may secure good luck, affluence, abundant blessings, and great satisfaction and remove poverty, misfortune and sufferings. Finally we achieve a purified and satiated soul.

Allah: The Giver of all Goodness

Al Wahhab, one of the 99 beautiful names of Almighty Allah, is the One Who bestows limitless gifts and rewards. He not only gives gifts once or twice, but He continually does so. Allah is The Most Generous in giving abundant blessings unendingly, to all who are in need, to the deserving and undeserving, without expecting or needing any returns. He is the Owner of the heavens and of the earth as well as of all their treasures. Allah gives whatever He wills and this does not lessen the treasures of His Kingdom. Allah is so kind that despite our disobedience of Him during day and night, He gives us the gift of health, wealth, family, and countless other things.

Allah says that during other times, He gives 10 – 700 times rewards for any good task. But for fasting during Ramadan, He does not give any fixed announcement of rewards. He loves to keep it to Himself. Allah gives enormous rewards for fasting whenever we are in need or as much as he thinks it should be. He wants us to forgive and give relief from our sufferings with manifold rewards in return of our Fasting.

70 times Increased Benefits

Allah says that He increases the rewards for any good deed by 70 times in honour of Ramadan. Just think about a garments factory. A usual announcement of overtime cannot influence the workers that much. But when they hear that it is going to be 2-3 times increased, they start working with great influence and tirelessly. The same thing happens during Ramadan. Allah gives us the announcement of increased rewards for our worships. This is not the month to relax or to take a break. During this month, Allah gives limitless rewards and manifold blessings to those who take it seriously. Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the best example to be followed during this month. Despite being so close to Allah, he used to increase his worships than other usual times to get the increased satisfaction of Allah.

Every Task of a True Believer is Worship

Not only Fasting or prayers, but every task of a person, who believes in God, gets considered as a prayer if he/she does not do any wrong or mischievous task. Even sleeping, eating, washing clothes, bathing, career, job, etc. turns into prayers to God. Therefore, we should realize what we are supposed to do during Ramadan. We must take it seriously to win Allah’s satisfaction and to reform ourselves.

Quran and Ramadan

Ramadan became graceful for Quran. The creation of Al Quran is the best task to Almighty Allah. When this Holy book arrived completely, Allah announced that He completed His blessings for us and fulfilled our Deen that day. Allah expressed His extreme happiness presenting the complete Quran as a proper guideline for all mankind. That is why Allah gave prominence to Ramadan above all other months.

Therefore, giving a serious effort to understand and to follow Quran should be our best task during Ramadan. With this view, Quantum announced this month as “let’s make this Ramadan a month of understanding the essence of Al Quran”

Spread the Essence of Al-Quran around Your Neighborhood

The way it is compulsory to acquire the knowledge of Holy Quran, it is also necessary to let everyone know about it. For this reason, the best task during Ramadan would be reading and understanding the Bengali essence of Al-Quran as well as trying to follow it as much as it’s possible. Also it would be another great task if we can reach as many as possible with the message of Al-Quran. We may start it by touching all 40 doors in our neighborhood. We may dedicate all the blessings, which we deserve for doing this task, to all the Prophets and Rasuls. Allah is All-Encompassing and All-Knowing. He may take all our responsibilities if He wills. If we devote ourselves to spread Allah’s message to all and dedicate all our blessings to Allah’s near ones, Allah will return great rewards to our near ones.

Month of Salvation: For the people who are alive or for those who have departed

Almighty Allah grants relief, from punishment, to some people in their graves all the year round. It increases highly during Ramadan. But who are those lucky ones? This is sort of like getting freedom from prisons. The way the jailor releases a prisoner for severe efforts of his/her near ones, Allah forgives those people for whom their near ones beg pardon and apply to Allah for their salvation in their prayers. Allah releases from the punishment of grave in a sort of priority basis. If the relatives or near ones of a dead person constantly keep on begging pardon on behalf of him/her to Allah and shed tears to get deliverance for the dead ones, Allah listens to their appeals first and set the following person free. Ramadan is the month when Allah loves to free as many as possible from the punishment in their graves. Therefore, we should not miss any single prayer during Ramadan to beg relief for our near ones who are dead.

Another part of salvation is for the living ones. Are we, who are alive, actually free? Knowingly or sometimes unknowingly we are being engaged in some inhuman activities. We are doing great mistakes or sins. People, who were once so close to us, are becoming our great enemies. We are doing injustice to ourselves. Eventually, we fall sick suffering for the mistakes that we have done. We become restless and lose the inner peace. Our brains stop working and a sort of frustration imprisons our minds firmly. This is the actual chain, which limits our inner freedom and it is for the people who are alive.

Ramadan is not meant for giving relief to some selected dead people only. If we want we, who are still living, may get relief from all our mental chains during Ramadan. With our serious efforts and sincere worships to Allah, we may reform our lives with great peace and realization. We may come out of our wrong notions and from all bad practices.

Charity

Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) used to contribute in charity a lot during Ramadan as it brings highly increased rewards in this month. Thus we understand that taking part in charity is the order of Allah. Matir Bank is such a medium through which we may contribute collectively in the charity and thus abide by Allah’s order of helping the deprived ones. It is not any personal program of Quantum Foundation. We sometimes get confused with the Matir Bank initiative. Honorable Gurujee made it clear to us and said that neither we donate for Quantum nor we donate in the Matir Bank; we are just following Allah’s instruction of donating for the deprived ones through Matir Bank. Matir bank is actually a charity bank. Giving money in it is actually an act of voluntary charity. That is why; when we donate in the Matir Bank, we find a kind of peace in mind along with a lot more gains. As the rewards of good deeds get increased during Ramadan, the more we will donate throughout this month the more we will save for ourselves.

For that reason, we are donating in the Matir Bank and inspiring others to do so as well.

Zakat

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. It means giving 2.5% of one’s savings of a year to the poor or deprived people who are suffering from economic hardship. We will have to think seriously about this as Zakat purifies and increases our wealth. If anyone tries hard to make him/her a Zakat giver, Allah gives them great honor of being the donors of Zakat very soon if He wills. That means they will become affluent soon by the grace of Allah. And when a person starts giving Zakat once, Allah gives him/her maximized blessings, increased wealth and great peace.

As Allah promised to give bonus rewards during Ramadan, we may involve as many Muslims as possible to give Zakat. In this way, we will be able to achieve bonus rewards from Almighty Allah.

Tarawih

Tarawih, an extra prayer prayed by the Muslims during Ramadan, is a Sunnah prayer. That means it is not mandatory as Farz prayers. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that Allah will forgive all the past sins if any Muslim says Tarawih at night in Ramadan with full belief and self-analysis.

Tarawih can be prayed in 8, 12 or 20 raka’at. Our Prophet used to pray Tarawih in 8 raka’at but with longer surahs from Al-Quran. We should perform this prayer attentively and carefully. It can be prayed in congregation at the Mosque. Muslim women can also go to the Mosque to perform Tarawih in congregation if there is proper arrangement. Or they will perform it at home.

This special prayer is prayed in pairs of two raka’at. You may take breaks for tasbih tahlil, tawba- istigfar, drinking water or for taking some rest in between any two parts of Tarawih. This break is important to give full concentration to the prayer. Take time, at least 2 hours, to complete your tarawih prayer. Try to do it in proper way but not by sitting. It may seem very difficult to you. But after finishing the prayer this way, you will feel amazing and completely satisfied. Allah will give you proper fitness gradually with a lot of blessings. Insha’Allah.

Food habits and physical fitness

Food habits during Ramadan should be as simple as it’s possible. Any fried food or fatty food, during Iftar or Sehri, is harmful for health. As long hours of fasting reduce some energy, it must be filled up with something that gives instant energy. Our Prophet (PBUH) used to break his fasts with only 3 dates. We may learn from this. Dates with plain water makes sucrose that gives an instant energy to the body after all day’s fasting. This is much better than glucose. For Sehri, you may choose some balanced slow-digesting foods like green leaves, brown rice, vegetables and/or lentils, etc. that last longer in the body. Foods that are rich in protein require more water to be digested. So we should try to avoid heavy protein during Sehri. In Iftar, after taking dates and water, we may take a balanced food containing all items of foods like meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, milk, etc. If this kind of food habit is formed, the physical fitness will be ensured.

Purification of body and soul

Roja or fasting does not mean refraining from eating. Our Prophet (PBUH) said that fasting means avoiding useless talks, fightings, debates, use of slangs or dirty words, etc.that are prohibited in Islam. Also we are supposed to control our anger, jealousy, wrath, enmity, hatred, pride, etc. during Ramadan.

In one side, we are getting physical fitness by forming a healthy food habit during Ramadan. In the other side, we are purifying our minds or souls by not participating in any bad practices or habits. This way we will achieve a complete blessed life with the reformation and refinement of our body and soul.

I’tikaf

I’tikaf is a very important part of Ramadan as it is done to find Laylat-al-Qadr (Night of Destiny). It is done, maintaining some conditions, for the purpose of worshiping Allah. Almighty Allah likes this very much. It is done in the last 10 nights of Ramadan. You may go to the Mosque for doing this. Our Prophet (PBUH) said to search the significant night of Laylat-al-Qadr on the odd dates of last 10 days of Ramadan. Rasulullah (PBUH) found Laylat-al-Qadr, the night of power, destiny, values and luck, many times during Ramadan’s last 10 odd nights. Our Muslim sisters may also do I’tikaf staying at home.

Conclusion

Thus, as we have discussed above, we will welcome Ramadan as the best achievement in our lives. We will practice Quran, donate in the charity bank, give Zakat and inspire everyone in all good works. We will increase these tasks during Ramadan with our other regular activities. And most importantly, we will have to stay involved with Foundation. We want peace and affluence. We may achieve it just by getting the satisfaction of God. Foundation is the place where, all together, we are trying to follow all the instructions of Almighty Creator.