Spiritual delights of fasting Ramadhan (16)

Today on the 16th day of the blessed month of Ramadhan, we start our daily programme titled “Spiritual Delights of Fasting Ramadhan” with the special supplication for the day:

“O Allah, enable me this day to follow in the steps of the pious; hold me back in it from the company of the wicked; and grant me haven in the abode of permanence with Your mercy; by Your Divinity, O God of all the worlds!”

In the blessed month of Ramadan we get more opportunity to think about the rights our Loving Creator has upon us, as well as the rights of fellow humans upon each other. One of the dynamics of Islam is that it stresses thanksgiving and appreciation. If someone is kind to you, it is natural for us not to forget this act of kindness, and most of us will strive to compensate it, especially when a favour is done, or a problem is solved. The one who does not reciprocate kindness is considered an ingrate.

Of course, it is a different matter when we lack the ability to repay the kindness done to us. But the least we can do is to express gratitude. The same could be said for the blessings God showers upon us day and night. We ought to express thanks to our Loving Creator for His countless favours, otherwise, we would be considered ingrate, and thus undeserving of the blessings of God.

In our daily life, we are indebted to many of our family members and friends for their care towards us. First and foremost are our own parents, through whom God Almighty brought us into this world, and who have spared no efforts to nurture us since childhood, taking care of all our needs. Till the last moments of their life, even when we are fully grown up and independent, while they have become very old, our parents always love us, and are concerned about our well-being. This love has been granted by God Almighty, Who indeed is more Loving and more Kind towards us than our own parents. Brothers and sisters help each other, while teachers have educated us.

So we should be thankful to our siblings and our teachers, as well as to our friends and neighbours for their friendliness. Gratitude is thus part of our innate nature, which means that we should always be thankful to God, for having created us and bestowed so many blessings including the air we breathe, the sunshine we enjoy and rains that refresh the atmosphere. In Surah Ibrahim, ayah 7, the holy Qur’an says:

“If you are grateful, I will surely enhance you [in blessing], but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is indeed severe.”

How Kind is God to us! Despite all the blessings he has bestowed upon us, He only wants us to thank Him, and has said that our appreciation for His favours in beneficial to us, since it increase His blessings on us, in addition to the rewards He has reserved for us in afterlife. One of the greatest gifts that God has granted to us is the blessed month of Ramadhan, in which fasts have been prescribed for the faithful to test the degree of their faith. It is the month in which the doors of mercy wide open and our prayers and supplications accepted in the Divine Court. Unfortunately, there are some people who always complain to God, and have closed their eyes to His blessings.

This is Ingratitude and it leads to discontent throughout life. Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams of his Household have shown to us how to be patient and courageously face difficulties and the problems of life. Never did they complain, and even gladly faced martyrdom for the love of God Almighty. The Prophet was so much troubled by the Arab infidels that he has said: No Prophet has been harassed as much as I was. Yet, the Prophet’s behaviour never changed. He never complained to God, and was always thankful to Him even under the most adverse circumstances.

One day God addressing Prophet Moses (PBUH) said:  O Moses, thank Me in the best possible way that I deserve. Moses said: My God, how can I do it, since for every thanksgiving that I make I should make another thank because it is You Who have granted me the gift of thanksgiving and everything is from You. Then God said: now that you know that even your thanksgiving is from Me, you have thanked me as I deserve.

Here we present you a passage from the Munajaat or Whispered Supplications of the Prophet’s 4^th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain-al Abedeen (AS), who have taught us how to praise God and thank Him for His blessings in the best possible way:

“My God, the uninterrupted flow of Your graciousness hast distracted me from thanking You! The flood of Your bounty has rendered me incapable of counting Your praises! The succession of Your kind acts has diverted me from mentioning You in laudation! The continuous rush of Your benefits has thwarted me from spreading the news of Your gentle favours! This is the station of him who confesses to the lavishness of favours.”

In Surah Ibrahim, ayah 34, God says:

“and He gave you all that you had asked Him.1 If you enumerate Allah’s blessings, you will not be able to count them.”

This means that the blessings of God are innumerable and beyond the powers of human beings to count them. Imam Zain al-Abedin teaches how to acknowledge our inability in thanking God, while praising Him, for this acknowledgement itself is a divine gift. He says in the Munajaat of those who are thankful:

“Your boons are abundant - my tongue is too weak to count them! Your favours are many - my understanding falls short of grasping them, not to speak of exhausting them! So how can I achieve thanksgiving? For my thanking You requires thanksgiving. Whenever I say, 'To You belong praise!', it becomes thereby incumbent upon me to say, 'To You belong praise'!”

AS/SS