Ramadaan and socio-political change

Vie

TOMORROW or the day after, depending on the sighting of the moon, Muslims around the world will begin a month-long fast of Ramadaan – the month the Muslims’ holy book, the Qur’an, was revealed.

During this month, all adult Muslims are required to fast from dawn until sunset. Essentially, the fast requires abstention from food, drink and sexual intercourse.

However, it is more than just that – hence the great sense of religiosity among Muslims in this month.

“Fasting has been prescribed for you, as it has been prescribed to those before you, so that you may learn selfrestraint,” says the Qur’an.

That “self-restraint” plays itself out in various ways apart from the fast. Participants pay particular heed to not getting angry.

A particularly striking social aspect of the month is the personal commitment by all worshippers to increase their charity in this period.

In South Africa, millions have already being set aside by Muslim businesses and individuals. These amounts will be distributed during Ramadaan – some to Muslim organisations and institutions, some to welfare organisations, and some to individuals deserving of charity.

The zakah, another of the five defining ritual duties of a Muslim, is a compulsory wealth tax of 2.5 percent that is usually distributed in this month.

Indeed, the social aspect of Ramadaan is regarded very seriously. Most Muslims even suggest that one of the significances of the fast is identification with those who are poverty-stricken, so that they may feel their pangs of hunger.

“Worldly pleasures” are also reduced during this month, and most Muslims pray more.

Special food is usually prepared in many households, and generally women bear the burden of much of the preparation.

Thus, apart from attempting to increase their worship and service to God and His creation, women also find themselves having to increase their service to their families as well – often in unnecessary ways.

Ramadaan is important in the religious imagination of Muslims in South Africa and around the world. It is being observed in a difficult sociopolitical context for Muslims globally.

Writing in Al Qalam, renowned academic Rashied Omar reminds us that this Ramadaan we will be commemorating 40 years since the June 16, 1976 uprisings. And a number of recent uprisings demand critical introspection by our leadership.

The mayhem caused by Islamic State, especially in Syria and Iraq, is causing untold suffering and dehumanising swathes of those societies. This Ramadaan, Muslims will reflect on how IS has created an environment that violates the religious norms of preserving human life and honouring human dignity.

And in a post-9/11 context in which Muslims have come to be seen as extremists, some even have to downplay their “Muslim-ness” in case it is held against them.

There is also a current wave of a realignment to Islam. In some ways, it is a reaction to disillusionment with the the imperial and colonising capitalist project of the West.

For example, a number of Muslim intellectuals who had decades ago strayed from Islam are relocating themselves within the religion and beginning to challenge empire in general through their new ideological location. They are also observing the rituals, which means those who may not have fasted before are starting to take Ramadaan seriously.

So the fast means Godconsciousness, self-restraint, greater charity initiatives and awareness of the social realities of hunger and want. Hopefully, it also means greater support for South Africa and the world’s poor and disadvantaged.

The current context raises the challenge of ensuring that this renewed energy in religion, particularly during the fast, is directed towards the objective of development, poverty alleviation and the global struggle against all forms of oppression.

The first day after Ramadaan is the festival of Eid al-Fitr – this year on July 6. Traditionally, the day cannot belong to those who do not cleanse their wealth with special charity.

• Buccus is a senior research associate at the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute, a research fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Social Sciences, and the academic director of a university study-abroad programme on political transformation.