Yvonne Teelucks­ingh

The re­li­gion of Is­lam is found­ed on five pil­lars - Sha­hadah (de­c­la­ra­tion of faith); Salah (the five dai­ly oblig­a­tory prayers); Za­kah (oblig­a­tory char­i­ty); Siyam (fast­ing dur­ing the month of Ra­mad­han); and Ha­jj (pil­grim­age to Makkah at least once in his/her life­time for those who are phys­i­cal­ly and fi­nan­cial­ly able to do so).

A month-long fast

Ra­mad­han is the ninth month in the Is­lam­ic Hi­jri cal­en­dar, and has been des­ig­nat­ed as that for the month-long fast of Is­lam. The Is­lam­ic cal­en­dar is a lu­nar cal­en­dar and 11-12 days short­er than the Gre­go­ri­an cal­en­dar.

This re­sults in the du­ra­tion of the months be­ing ei­ther 29 to 30 days, de­pend­ing on the sight­ing of the New Moon ie one month ends and an­oth­er be­gins when the New Moon is sight­ed. It was ex­pect­ed that Ra­mad­han 2010 would com­menced last Thurs­day Au­gust 12, In­shal­lah (God Will­ing).

The sig­nif­i­cance of the month of Ra­mad­han is con­tained in chap­ter two verse 185 of the Holy Qur'an: "Ra­mad­han is the (month) in which was sent down The Qur'an, as a guide to mankind, al­so clear (signs) for guid­ance and judge­ment (be­tween right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) dur­ing that month should spend it in fast­ing."

Muham­mad's man­date

It was dur­ing the month of Ra­mad­han that the first rev­e­la­tions of the Qur'an were giv­en to the un­let­tered Prophet of Is­lam, Muham­mad (uwbp). The Prophet (uwbp) used to re­tire to a cave in the side of Mount Hi­ra, some three miles north of the city of Makkah, where he spent the time in prayer and con­tem­pla­tion.

It was here that in his for­ti­eth year he was vis­it­ed dur­ing the month of Ra­mad­han by "a daz­zling vi­sion of beau­ty and light" (the an­gel Gabriel) who spoke the word, "Iqra!" (Read! Pro­claim! Re­cite!) and who made clear to Muham­mad (uwbp) that he would be the in­stru­ment through which God's rev­e­la­tions would be de­liv­ered to mankind.

To­day, for the world's one bil­lion plus fol­low­ers of Is­lam, the Holy Qur'an re­mains "a foun­tain of mer­cy and wis­dom, a warn­ing to the heed­less, a guide to the erring, and an as­sur­ance to those in doubt, a so­lace to the suf­fer­ing, a hope to those in de­spair, and a mer­cy to mankind."