Ramadhan Mubarak: A blessing called Ramzan

September 2009

By Syed Akbar

Ramzan is the ninth month of Islamic calendar. Ramzan is an Arabic word, which means intense heat. True to its sense Ramzan with its intense spiritual heat burns away all the sins, ignorance, arrogance, boastfulness and haughtiness and moulds the devout into simple, humble, God-fearing, pious, gentle and caring human beings.
Muslims consider this holy month as a blessing for a number of reasons. The most important reasons are: fasting, prayers, charity and revelation of the Holy Quran.
Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam and it is obligatory on all adult Muslims, men and women. Fasting from dawn to dusk makes one understand the pangs of hunger which the poor undergo almost everyday.

It tells us how an empty stomach would bother us and at the same time makes us sit and think over the trouble the poor and the underprivileged suffer from.

Fasting creates a sense of love and responsibility towards the poor and makes us humane and caring.

Ramzan is also the time of devotion to the Almighty God. The best way of showing devotion to the Creator is to pray, beseech His Blessings and invoke peace on all creatures. Like fasting, prayers and supplication make us more concerned towards others, fellow human beings, animals, birds and plants. Muslims spend most part of the day and night in special prayers and supplications.
We fast and understand the pangs of hunger. Our prayers to the Almighty make us humble and caring. The next step is to deliver something to those who are not as blessed as we are. So charity comes into existence. Every Muslim, who has the financial means and capabilities, should donate a fixed part of his or her income towards charity.

Charity is a life long affair, but special emphasis should be paid on the Ramzan charity. Many Muslims prefer to pay their compulsory charity called Zakat during Ramzan.

Zakat can be paid during any part of the year, but some feel that paying Zakat during Ramzan is more rewarding. Zakat is also one of the five pillars of Islam. Zakat is obligatory. Besides Zakat, Muslims also pay another type of charity during Ramzan, but before the Id-ul-fitr. It is called Fitra. The idea behind fitra is to help the poor in the neighbourhood with financial assistance so that they too could join the Id festivities. The purpose of Zakat is to remove social and financial imbalances and help the poor stand on their legs.

Another important feature of Ramzan that separates it from the rest of the 11 months of Islamic calendar is that the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through Archangel Gabriel during this month.

Muslims offer special night prayers called Taraveeh. The Holy Quran started revealing to the Prophet on the Lailat-al-Qadr (the night of power), which falls on one of the odd nights of the last 10 days of Ramzan. Many Muslims believe that the Lailat-al-Qadr falls on the 27th night of Ramzan. But as a matter of abundant caution, all Muslims celebrate the odd nights of the last 10 days of the month, so as not to miss the Night of Power.
The significance of Ramzan pre-dates the birth of Prophet Muhammad.
Arabs used to consider Ramzan as a holy month and many of them used to observe special prayers.
In the pre-Islamic Arab calendar too, Ramzan occupied the sloth of ninth month.