Ramzan is About Much More Than Just Fasting for a Few Hours a Day

This Ramzan, spread love and happiness around you. Speak up for the oppressed. Take care of people. Be kind.

Remember, Ramzan is much more than fasting for a few hours a day.

(Photo: The Quint)

The holy month marked its beginning once again with WhatsApp flooding with Ramadan Kareem, Ramzan Mubarak messages. But in this time of materialism, are we truly cherishing the essence of Ramzan?

It is human tendency to appreciate something more after one gets to experience it.

"Verily, Allah made fasting obligatory in order to equalise between the poor and the rich. Surely, the rich people would not otherwise feel the pain of hunger to be kind to the poor," said Imam Jafar, great grandson of Imam Hussain.

Remember, Ramzan is much more than fasting for a few hours a day. This month is a present, a gift, just like a reset button. A time-out where you step out of the rat race to ponder on your life, on your inner self and of course to see where you are heading.

There is no point in staying hungry if you :-

1. Indulge in sectarian or religious hate mongering
2. Drive on the wrong side of the road
3. Park your vehicle blocking the way of others
4. Jump traffic signals just cause you are late for namaz, or otherwise
5. Use expletives in each sentence you speak
6. Raise your voice on the weak
7. Do not raise your voice for the weak
8. Do not treat your parents and loved ones with respect
9. Make a show of your charity
10. Make fun of or show disrespect to religious figures of other religions
11. Lie or backbite
12. Take or give bribes
13. Break your promises or back stab someone
14. Ignore your office work which you are being paid for
15. Do not speak with compassion and warmth with people, strangers, or otherwise
16. Let your neighbors sleep hungry (irrespective of their religion)
17. Are not kind towards stray animals
18. Throw your garbage out of your window on the street below or in the vacant plot next to your home
19. Argue about the correct spelling of Ramzan or Ramadan

Too busy to read? Listen to it instead.

All the above things need to be taken care of throughout the year, but then we don’t have Ramzan all round the year to alert us, to push us, to “reset” our lives in order to make us a better human being. If we are not doing the aforementioned even during this month, then what is the point of celebrating Ramzan?

Celebrate it for your introspection, to meet yourself.

If I have to condense Islam in a single line, it would be, “Never hurt anyone by your actions”. Anyone means anyone! Because, even God will not pardon you till that person whom you hurt pardons you.

This Ramzan, spread love and happiness around you. Speak up for the oppressed. Take care of people around you. Be kind. Do the right thing.

Happy Ramzan to all of you. Remember, it was never about just staying hungry!

(A social media strategist, Asad Haider Zaidi is the co-founder of ShouldertoShoulder movement, an initiative launched to promote universal brotherhood across different communities. He tweets @asadzaidi. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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