Welcome to the 25th episode of Heavenly Call on the occasion of the blessed fasting month of Ramadhan.

We start with the special supplication of the 25^th day:

“O Allah, appoint me this day to be among those who love Your friends and hate Your enemies, and those who follow the sunnah of the Seal of Your Prophets; O Preserver of  the hearts of  the prophets (from faults)!”

One of the main goals of fasting is to attain Godwariness or piety, which prevents us from perversion and corruption and leads us toward virtues and self-dignity. It remove spites and differences by bringing hearts closer to each other. Such an atmosphere can only materialize in the light of deep religious bonds as the noble Qur'an says in ayah 10 of surah Hujurat,"Only the faithful are brothers. Therefore, make peace among your brothers and be wary of Allah, so that you may receive His mercy."

Applying the word brother, the Qur'an wants to create the firmest bond and closest friendship among the faithful.

The noble Qur'an describes brotherhood as a divine bounty in ayah 102 of surah Aal-e Imran, when it says: “Remember Allah's blessing upon you when your were enemies, then He brought your hearts together, so you became brothers with His blessing."

There are two points in this ayah. First, the bond of brotherhood is a blessing and favour of God. It means we should never forget the role of Divine Will in fostering peace and the spirit of harmony among the true believers. In other words, though we have to do our best to bring hearts together we should never be oblivious of the fact that no effort shall bear fruit without Divine Grace. In ayah 63 of surah Anfal, God further elaborates this point, when He says:

“Had you spent all that is in the earth, you could not have united their hearts, but Allah united them together. Indeed, He is all-Mighty, all-Wise.”

Secondly, the ground for a durable bond should be the heart. In view of this, the ethnic, tribal, national, political, geographical and other bonds are just superficial and will not last as the ideological bonds. Here it should be noted that the sworn enemies of Islam have always sought the policy of divide and rule. This was an old British trick to cause rifts among Muslims of different denominations to dominate their lands and plunder their resources.

The best way of thwarting the enemy's conspiracies is to bolster bonds, by adhering steadfastly to religious goals and ideals with full observance of piety and Godwariness. Ayah 200 of surah Aal-e Imran reads:

“O you who have faith! Be patient, stand firm and close ranks, and be wary of Allah so that you may be felicitous.”

Here are some interesting tidings given by Prophet Mohammad (SAWA):

“Shall I inform you of an act which is better than prayer, fasting and charity? It is making peace among people. Because exacerbation of relations among people is fatal and destroys the religion.”

We know that prayer and fasting are very important in Islam. But the Messenger of Mercy introduces peaking peace as superior to them. This shows the key role of making peace and removal of differences and spites. Another point is that the Prophet considers exacerbation of relations as a poison for the Islamic society. This means that differences can lead the society towards weakness and make it subservient and servile to the enemies. The last point is that differences and hostilities are destructive for the religion. Fanning the flames of differences are to the benefit of enemies. Ayah 217 of surah Baqara says the unbelievers “will not cease fighting you until they turn you away from your religion.”

This is a reality that we face today. All stratagems of Global Arrogance and Zionism – as symbolized by the US and the illegal Zionist entity – are aimed at breaking the ranks of the Resistance and the brotherly bonds among Muslim states so as to weaken the Ummah.

AS/ME