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Ramadan 2021: Keeping 'inner peace' is key to lasting happiness

When we fast, we feel the pains of deprivation and hunger, and learn how to endure it patiently.

Ramadan is a month in which the mercy and blessings of Allah descend upon us continuously. This is the month for renewing our commitment and re-establishing our relationship with our Creator. It is the spring season for goodness and virtues when righteousness blossoms throughout the Muslim communities. It offers every Muslim an opportunity to strengthen his Iman, purify his heart and soul, and remove the evil effects of sin.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Anyone who fasts during this month with purity of belief and with expectation of a good reward (from his Creator), will have his previous sins forgiven; anyone who stands in prayer during its nights with purity of belief and expectation of a reward, will have his previous sins forgiven.”

The rewards for good deeds are multiplied manifold during Ramadan.

At a time when the Muslim world is beset with insurmountable challenges, the holy month provides the best opportunity for introspection and self-reform. And the problem demands for its solution serious reading of the Seerat, life of the Messenger of Mercy, the last prophet of Allah, Muhammad (PBUH).

If one wants true and lasting happiness, one needs to develop and maintain “inner peace”. The only way we can do this is by training our mind and body through spiritual practice. For Muslims, Ramadan gives the opportunity of fasting, devotional prayers, recitation of Quran and Allah’s remembrance.

Fasting inculcates in us the virtue of patience and unselfishness. When we fast, we feel the pains of deprivation and hunger, and learn how to endure it patiently. The meaning of this powerful experience in a social and humanitarian context is that we are much quicker than anybody else in sympathising with the oppressed and needy around the world, and responding to their needs.

In a nutshell, even though the real purpose of the dynamic institution of fasting is to discipline our soul and moral behaviour, and to develop sympathy for the less fortunate, it is a multi-functional and a comprehensive tool of change in various spheres of our lives, including: Social and economic, intellectual and humanitarian, spiritual and physical, private and public, personal and common — all in one!

— K.M.Z.