Farewell to Ramadan K M Zubair (Reflections) / 7 August 2013 It was a month of recompense, closeness to AllahThe holy month of Ramadan is now ready to depart. Parting scenes are always sad, but, in this case, Muslims all over the world bid a tearful goodbye to a very honoured guest with a heavy heart, especially because they do not know if they will ever see the blessed month again. The anxious thoughts of fear and hopes, pain their heart and mind and they cry and cry.Ramadan is a month of recompense, a month of closeness to Allah, a month of illumination by the Glorious Quran, a month of re-direction of destinies and possibilities, charity, divine blessings. A memorable month, indeed. Understandably, no one wants to part company with the holy month willingly. The moment the blessed month bids farewell, Muslims yearn for its return.Normally, a guest does not stay long with his host. When he will return is something that cannot be determined exactly by the host. Such visitor could return at his appointed time but may not find the same host for he could have left for the destination from which he will never return at all.This is how Ramadan manifests itself to the Muslim Ummah so that when it leaves and departs in a few days from now, none of us has the assurance of receiving it again next year simply because none of us knows his fate — whether he will be still around, or will already have joined his Creator — by the time Ramadan returns again next year.This blessing and virtue-filled guest of the believers has only come and stayed with us for a while to bring us a chance to purify and cleanse ourselves of wrongdoing and misdeeds and lay before us the opportunity to invest for the next world for which all living creatures are inevitably bound.A person who has been indifferent since the beginning of this month and who only pays little attention to the essence and greatness of Ramadan can still rise up and toil on any act of worship he willingly chooses so as not to be totally deprived of the immense reward lying in wait for him in the life after death.At the end of this blessed month we say “O Allah, forgive me. My Lord, I could have done more but I did not, so forgive me. My Lord, excuse my shortcomings and blemishes, You are indeed oft -Forgiving and You love forgiveness, so forgive me.”Istighfaar, or seeking forgiveness, at the end of every good deed, not just bad deeds, is the way of the righteous. We need forgiveness to patch the holes we created in our fasting due to our faults and mistakes, or at least for falling short on fulfilling the full rights of hospitality to the guest.Margani U. Mohammad, a Filipino, who worked with the High Shari’ah Court of Jeddah, writes: As the blessed month winds down, it is important to remember one of our cardinal responsibilities this month. Zakatul-Fitr. It is obligatory at this time we are bidding farewell to Ramadan.That is why the suffix Fitr is attached to it to commemorate the occasion of breaking the fast.For the umpteenth time, a man has to pay on behalf of himself and his wife even if she has money of her own and his children and parents if they are poor, and his daughter if she is married but the marriage has not yet been consummated.If his son is rich, he does not have to give Zakatul-Fitr on his behalf. A husband has to give Zakatul-Fitr on behalf of a divorced wife whose divorce (Talaaq) is not yet final (i.e., she is still in the ‘Iddah of a first or second Talaaq), but not in the case of one whose divorce is final.A son does not have to give Zakatul-Fitr on behalf of a poor father’s wife because he is not obliged to spend on her. When giving Zakatul-Fitr, one should start with the closest people first, so he gives it on behalf of himself, then his wife, then his children, then the rest of his relatives in order of closeness, following the pattern laid out in the rules governing inheritance.It should be given on one of the foodstuff, which is commonly consumed in the society. The popular measurement of it is four handful on behalf of one person. If it has to be given in money, although this is not encouraged but the societal demands and circumstances sometimes call for it, it has to be well calculated that the appropriate money measure is given and at the right time and according to the existing price of the desired foodstuff.Prayer of the day: O Allah, on this day, make my fasts worthy of acceptance, make it to be what pleases You. Our Lord, cover me with your mercy, grant me in it success and protection, for the sake of our leader, Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and his family and all his companions. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:32:17 +0000
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