Fasting in Ramadan commemorates Qur’an and promises social reform

Billions worldwide unite with gratitude to Allah in observing the sacred month of fasting alighting mid-April this year. As Muslims, we eagerly await tasting the sweet transformative fruit of this outwardly bitter struggle. We commemorate the awe-inspiring genesis of the Holy Qur’an and the 23-year incremental revelation of the most read and influential book on Earth that guided humanity out of the dark ages into enlightenment. We collectively illustrate the Islamic pillar of how “man shall not live by bread alone” (Deut. 8:3, Matt. 4:4) but by the spiritual sustenance of God’s nourishing commandments and reforming words. It strengthens our connection to the Source of Justice and Peace and brings us closer in love with the One God as well as humanity whose “creation and resurrection are only like that of a single being” Qur’an 31:29.

Fasting from sunrise to sunset in Ramadan is a soul-saving prescription from Allah that resounds across Faiths, as is written “to guard against evil,” Qur’an 2:184. This ancient discipline was essentially practiced by Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Zoroaster and other religious founders as a shield for believers against spiritual pandemics and to transcend transitory attachments towards blissful Divine nearness extending beyond this temporal existence into the “better and more lasting” afterlife and its mysteries. The training of self-restraint, the sacrifice of food, intimate relations with spouses, and wealth, and corporeal hunger and thirst induce compassion and solidarity with the underprivileged while sharpening metaphysical faculties. Spiritual, moral, and physical cleanliness, enhanced prayers, stopping to reflect, increased charity, promoting peace, and eschewing vice promise safety, justice, and righteousness in society. Abstinence from carnal pleasures, lowly desires, the unlawful, and even some of the lawful, purifies and equips the soul to better behold the Lord of all the worlds.

It was amid the “night of power” in the last 10 days of this 9th lunar month 14 centuries ago that the Glorious Qur’an began its descent from God’s Throne upon the noble heart of the “Seal of all Prophets” Muhammad, recognized as the greatest Law-Giver, in cave Hira atop mount Nur. This Arab was to be “sent as a mercy to all the worlds” Qur’an 3:111. The Holy Spirit, Messenger Angel Gabriel, majestically manifested in his original illustrious form with 600 wings to the chosen one with the Message that would change the world forever. The same Angel that appeared to the law-giver Moses and announced the good news of the birth of Messiah Jesus to virgin mother Mary now brought the Creator’s perfect and final law for all peoples and times to their brother Prophet Muhammad encompassing and fulfilling holy Scriptures and Prophets of old.

“Read” instructed an otherworldly shining entity, “I do not know how to read” responded the honest and awestruck 40-year-old who thought he was alone atop the Biblical Mount Paran (Deut. 33:2). Orphaned at the tender age of 6 and lacking formal secular education Prophet Muhammad was unlettered so could not read or write. This exchange foretold in Isaiah 29:12 took place thrice, each time awakening the Promised Messenger from within. “Read in the name of your Lord who Creates, Creates man from a drop of fluid. Read, and your Lord is the Most Bounteous. Who taught by the pen, Taught man what he did not know,” revealed the compelling entity and then departed. This was the beginning of the beautiful Quran, God’s loveladen letter to the children of Adam personified and propagated by His Messenger on how to rise up and reunite with Him in this very life as well as the next.

The first 10 days of Ramadan are spent striving to win God’s mercy, the second ten days are about winning His forgiveness, and the last ten days emancipate from hellfire here and hereafter. It’s in the odd nights of the last ten days that we search for the “night of decree, better than a thousand months, wherein His Angels and Spirit descend by their Lord’s command with His decree concerning every matter, it is all peace” Qur’an 97.

As an Ahmadi Muslim, Ramadan is also the special month that bore witness, along with the sun and moon, to the truth of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, Imam Mahdi, and founder of the global Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Prophet Muhammad predicted “two heavenly signs that never occurred before; lunar and solar eclipsing on their first and middle appointed days in Ramadan would testify to our true latter-day universal Leader” (Daraqutni, Matt. 24:29, Quran 75:9-10). This was fulfilled in 1894 and again in 1895 in support of Messiah Ahmad.