All praise is due to Al­lah Almighty who is the bene­fac­tor of every favour. Peace and salu­ta­tions up­on the fi­nal Mes­sen­ger of Al­lah to mankind, Muham­mad (SA) who came to teach us how to be grate­ful to Al­lah, our cre­ator, for the favours He has be­stowed on us. The favours of Al­lah may be of a phys­i­cal na­ture like limbs, chil­dren and the send­ing of rain or they may be of an ab­stract na­ture like hav­ing peace of mind, un­der­stand­ing and con­tent­ment. It is in­cum­bent that one ac­knowl­edges that both these types of favours are gifts from Al­lah and that they must be thank­ful to Al­lah for them.

Hav­ing wit­nessed the month of Ra­madaan is in­deed a great favour from Al­lah. The month came as a sea­son of bless­ings, mer­cy and for­give­ness. Many mus­lims pri­or to Ra­madaan were in great ex­pec­ta­tion to live un­til the most blessed month ar­rived in or­der that they would ben­e­fit from the trea­sures of Ra­madaan but the an­gel of death vis­it­ed them and they were not spared the time. Many had elab­o­rate plans for wor­ship in the month but sick­ness over­pow­ered them and these plans were dashed. So we thank Al­lah for hav­ing giv­en us the op­por­tu­ni­ty to live and to wor­ship dur­ing this month for we do not know if the next Ra­madaan will avail us.

The month of Ra­madaan was in­deed wel­comed with great zeal and en­thu­si­asm. The feel­ing of joy and hap­pi­ness filled the heart when the new moon was sight­ed to com­mence the month. Like­wise, there was an at­mos­phere of joy and hap­pi­ness when the month of Ra­madaan came to an end and the moon for the com­mence­ment of Shawwaal was seen. This sig­ni­fied the com­ple­tion of a month of spir­i­tu­al train­ing and moral rec­ti­tude as it ush­ered the com­ing of the day of Eid ul Fitr. On the com­ple­tion of the month of Ra­madaan, there is de­light and con­tent­ment with a deep sat­is­fac­tion of achieve­ment in the ful­fill­ment of Al­lah’s com­mand­ments to fast and wor­ship. This oc­ca­sion of joy and fes­tiv­i­ty is cel­e­brat­ed on the day of Eid as a day of re­mem­brance.

Al­lah Almighty says in the Quraan: “Al­lah in­tends ease for you and He (Al­lah) does not in­tend dif­fi­cul­ty up­on you. (He wants that) you com­plete the num­ber (of days) and that you cel­e­brate His great­ness (with Tak­beer – say­ing of Al­lahu Ak­bar) for hav­ing guid­ed you so that you may be grate­ful to Him.” (2:185)

Mus­lims re­mem­ber the bless­ings and favours of Al­lah Almighty on Eid with the Eid prayer and con­vey praise and salu­ta­tion for Him. Eid is al­so the time to cel­e­brate the tri­umph of di­vine al­le­giance and in­creased re­li­gious de­vout­ness over triv­ial and in­signif­i­cant de­sires and needs of life. Eid cel­e­brates the act of for­give­ness, as Al­lah con­fers mer­cy and for­give­ness to all those who ap­proach him with sin­cer­i­ty. Af­ter the month-long fast­ing, Eid sig­ni­fies a re­new­al of faith, hope, hap­pi­ness, cheer, com­pas­sion and fes­tiv­i­ty.

Mus­lims should, how­ev­er, not for­get the sig­nif­i­cance of the fast of Ra­madaan. Al­lah high­light­ed the ob­jec­tive of fast­ing in the Quraan:

“O you who be­lieve fast­ing has been pre­scribed for you as it was pre­scribed to those be­fore you that you may learn Taqwa (piety).”

Taqwa is an Ara­bic word which con­sti­tutes the core of all spir­i­tu­al achieve­ments and up­lift­ment. It in­cludes in its mean­ing – piety, God-con­scious­ness, self-re­straint, fear of Al­lah and sin­cer­i­ty. Thus, the fast in Ra­madaan cre­ates piety which is a moral qual­i­ty and a prod­uct of in­tense love and fear of the Cre­ator. Love of Al­lah is pro­duced in the heart by a strong faith in His flaw­less Be­ing and a deep con­scious­ness of His per­fect at­trib­ut­es of mer­cy, benef­i­cence and com­pas­sion. Fear is pro­duced by our con­scious­ness of His wrath, dis­plea­sure and chas­tise­ment. The re­sul­tant feel­ing of the heart, mind and body is piety (taqwa), which is in­deed the ba­sis of sin­cer­i­ty and all good acts and a de­ter­rent against all evil acts and in­cli­na­tions.

There­fore, dur­ing the month of Ra­madaan, Mus­lims en­gaged abun­dant­ly in such ac­tions which at­tract the mer­cies and love of Al­lah, like fast­ing dur­ing the days; Salaah – com­pul­so­ry as well as com­mend­able like Taraaweeh, Taha­jjud, etc; Dua (sup­pli­ca­tions); Dhikr (re­mem­brance of Al­lah); Tilaawah (recita­tion of Quraan);

Char­i­ty – Com­pul­so­ry Za­kaah and op­tion­al Sadaqah; and oth­er vir­tu­ous qual­i­ties such as pa­tience, sin­cer­i­ty, sym­pa­thy, com­pas­sion and self-sac­ri­fice.

On the oth­er hand, many un­wor­thy ac­tions and de­grad­ing qual­i­ties were avoid­ed fear­ing the wrath and chas­tise­ment of Al­lah, such as fight­ing, quar­relling, back­bit­ing, slan­der, lust, ly­ing, pride, anger, de­ceit, un­grate­ful­ness, etc.

The train­ing in Taqwa is meant to em­pow­er man with the abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue in obe­di­ence to Al­lah and Prophet Muham­mad (SA) even as Ra­madaan has come to an end. The vir­tu­ous acts done dur­ing Ra­madaan should be con­tin­ued in the months which fol­low and like­wise the sin­ful and dis­liked acts and vices that were avoid­ed dur­ing Ra­madaan should al­so be avoid­ed af­ter it. Mus­lims should keep their guards up and be­ware of the many tricks of Shaitaan, who would in­ces­sant­ly lull and in­flu­ence them in­to dis­re­pute, im­moral­i­ty and in­to the abyss of sins.

The true test of Taqwa learnt is to be con­stant up­on these lessons in the fu­ture. The Prophet (SA) said: “The most beloved ac­tion to Al­lah is main­tain­ing con­stan­cy (up­on a virtue) even if it be of a small amount.” (Bukhari)

In an­oth­er Ha­dith nar­rat­ed by Su­fyaan ibn Ab­dul­lah Ath-Thaqafi, who said: I said: “O Mes­sen­ger of Al­lah (SA), Ad­vise me in Is­lam such an ad­vice about which I would not ask any­one be­side you!” He (SA) said: “Say – ‘I be­lieve in Al­lah’ and then be­come stead­fast.” (Mus­lim, Tir­mid­hi)

The state­ment of the Ra­su­ul (SA) should be un­der­stood as an ad­vice to­wards a virtue which he (SA) gave to the Sa­habah (RA) that he should be stead­fast up­on faith in Al­lah, as well as in the con­di­tions of faith. Sim­i­lar to the virtue of faith in Al­lah, the ad­vice can al­so be ap­plied to any virtue, that one should al­so be­come stead­fast up­on it.

Al­lah Ta’aala en­cour­ages the be­liev­ers to de­vel­op the qual­i­ty of stead­fast­ness in good ac­tions by men­tion­ing the ben­e­fits of con­stan­cy in vir­tu­ous deeds.

The Quraan states: “Ver­i­ly those who say: ‘Our Lord is Al­lah’ then they be­come stead­fast up­on it. The an­gels would de­scend to them (at the time of death) say­ing: ‘Do not fear (of the mat­ters ahead of death) and do not grieve (of the mat­ters of the world). But glad tid­ings (to you) of the Par­adise which you have been promised. We were your guardians/com­pan­ions in the world­ly life and (will be your com­pan­ion in) the Here­after. For you is what­ev­er your souls de­sire and what­ev­er you beck­on. A hos­pitable place (for you) from the Most For­giv­ing and Most Mer­ci­ful.” (41:30)

One must there­fore ap­ply the many lessons of Ra­madaan in their lives with con­stan­cy and then be­come hope­ful of the mag­nif­i­cent re­wards which Al­lah has promised in the verse. Such stead­fast­ness leads to a death with Imaan (faith) in Al­lah and al­so of the glad tid­ings by the an­gels of the Par­adise and the many ben­e­fits there­in.

Wor­ship in the month of Ra­madaan should have brought about a zeal to please Al­lah in all our ac­tions and un­der­tak­ings. The ques­tions may have arose, “How do we please Al­lah? What ac­tion pleas­es Al­lah? What ac­tion does not please Al­lah?” The an­swers to these ques­tions as well as many oth­ers would on­ly be solved with sound knowl­edge. Dur­ing the month, one would have made the ef­fort to learn the break­ers of fast, the things which do not break the fast, the acts dis­liked while fast­ing, the laws of Salaah, Za­kaah laws per­tain­ing to the day of Eid, Sadaqat­ul Fitr, Duas (sup­pli­ca­tions), Vers­es of the Holy Quraan, etc. All these are be­ing learnt on­ly to safe­guard our acts and rit­u­als of wor­ship so as to please Al­lah. Pleas­ing Al­lah does not stop with the end of Ra­madaan and like­wise seek­ing knowl­edge should al­so not stop at the end of Ra­madaan. We would still need to know about the many as­pects of our deen (re­li­gion) as it af­fects our lives, such as trade, mar­riage, di­vorce, in­her­i­tance, so­cial rights, fu­ner­als, etc., as well as to en­hance that which we had al­ready start­ed in Ra­madaan. There­fore, even af­ter Ra­madaan Mus­lims should per­sist in their sac­ri­fices and ef­forts for the sound and pris­tine knowl­edge of Is­laam, as this would be es­sen­tial for ac­tions at­tract­ing the plea­sure of Al­lah.

The day of Eid is a day of prize-giv­ing. Al­lah gives us abun­dant re­wards for fast­ing the month and for our wor­ship and de­vo­tion to Him. We al­so should rec­i­p­ro­cate with gifts to rel­a­tives, friends, chil­dren, el­ders and the in­di­gent. This would fos­ter love, com­pas­sion and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty at all lev­els in the so­ci­ety by en­hanc­ing fam­i­ly uni­ty and well-be­ing, so­cial and com­mu­ni­ty uni­ty and well-be­ing, and at large the en­tire na­tion be­comes in­flu­enced with the Is­lam­ic spir­it of hap­pi­ness and peace­ful­ness.

May Al­lah bless all of us on this joy­ous oc­ca­sion of Eid.

Darul Uloom Trinidad and To­ba­go