A Month of Training
Al-Risala (English), June 1986, p. 3
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
A Month of Training
1986 6 June 3 A Month of Training (430) The Prophet Mohammad called the month of Ramadhan a month of patience. And the Quran states that fasting during this month has been prescribed so that man may become God-fearing. These being two qualities which are required of us every month of the year, why is it that they have been so particularly mentioned in connection with the month of Ramadhan?
The reason for this is that Ramadhan is the special period of the year during which these qualities are to be cultivated. Of course, patience and piety are required of every Muslim every day of the year and every year of his entire life. They are part of a code to which he must at all times adhere. But in this one particular month, special stress has been laid upon them so that they become an integral part of the human character. This is done by laying down a certain discipline, so that much as people may want to do something, they will then refrain from doing it, if it is an action displeasing to God. If they wish to eat or drink something, no matter how strong their desires, they will not do so if divine law prohibits it. They will follow the will of God irrespective of the circumstances and regardless of any difficulties they encounter in the process. Even if it means leaving behind, or abstaining from that which they hold most dear, they will not abandon the way of God.
Ramadhan is a kind of “Crash Course” aimed at filling people with a truly religious spirit and making them conscious of their responsibilities to God. For one month in the year, people spend all of their time in divine worship, all of their days and nights being spent in prayer and fasting. In this way, people are trained to perform every action in the divinely appointed way. Their waking and sleeping, their eating and their abstinence, the action and inaction–all must be in accordance with the commands of God. This is how a true servant of God should behave, not just on special occasions, but on every day of the year. For one month, certain habits are enforced as part of definite discipline, so that for the rest of the year, he will have no difficulty in exercising the same control over all of his actions.
One thoroughly imbued with the qualities of patience and piety during the month of Ramadhan, even the most ordinary and weak-willed of individual is able to maintain the same high standard of conduct throughout the rest of year.
