Ramadhan: An Academy

Allah created us in two distinct parts--a body made of soil, clay and dirt; and a ruh, which is blown into the body when we were in our mother's womb. The ruh, interestingly, was created way before our body is created. All of us, took a covenant with Allah, to obey Him, and acknowledge that He is Our Lord. 

And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam's loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes! We testify," lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily, we have been unaware of this." (7:172)

Yes! We testified!

Each and every one of us has indeed testified in front of Him, that He is Our Lord, Our Master, even before we were born. But why, when we take a look at our society today, it seems that most of us do not even believe that there is a God, let alone to obey one. We are already born with the belief of God, deep inside of us, we already have the light, because we took an oath, but, some of us forget that. We forget that Allah is Our Master, the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, and we even forget that we have no ownership of our own body and soul, because they all belong to Him. 

We forget the most important thing of all. 

Everything that Allah creates, is dependent, and has its own needs. Only Allah has no needs, while all of His creations have needs, so as our body and ruh. The body needs food, nourishment, the desire for beautification. As the body is made of earth, everything that the body needs comes from the earth. The ruh is different. It comes from Allah, hence its needs must come from Allah as well. 

Unfortunately, man runs after fulfilling the needs of the body, fulfilling their desire while neglecting the ruh's needs. We are concerned of our own self indulgence, and we tend to forget that our ruh needs its food and nourishment too. We keep feeding our body, but our ruh is in hunger, starving, until it falls sick, and eventually dies. It's like having two children, we feed one child until he is obese, while leaving the other to starve to death. 

So what happens when our ruh is sick? Our iman (faith) gets thinner, lighter, until one day, we have no more faith towards Allah. We do not believe in Allah anymore, and fails to obey Him. Nauzubillah. The food for the ruh is the revelation from the Quran. Nothing is better than the Quran, which is the light itself. The light, which is Quran, will come in contact with the light already inside our ruh, when we made the agreement with Allah before we were born. Light upon Light. (24:35)

For 11 months, we strive to fulfil the needs of our body, thus the body and the ruh are in imbalance. Fasting, on the other hand, holds up the need of the body, weakening the body's needs, allowing some space to grow for the ruh. The body will be weakened, and the ruh could be strengthen in Ramadan. How? By giving it the light--the Quran. That's why Ramadan is the month of the Quran. 

Wonderful, isn't it? How Allah knows that man tends to neglect the ruh, hence Allah provides us a month, for us to train our body and ruh to be in balance. So we could not let this fantastic opportunity to be wasted, each second in Ramadan is priceless. Let's us make full use of our Ramadan, who knows, we might not come across another Ramadan again.

Salam Ramadan, 

Erni Bidin. 

Wonderful 11 Ramadhan 

Source: Nouman Ali Khan's speech on Youtube; Relationship between Fasting and Holy Quran in Ramadan.

Ramadhan. Day 1

Day 1.

Failed. Tewas. Defeated. Last Ramadhan, my performance was absolutely the worst, ever. So I vowed that this Ramadhan, I would definitely give my best. Needless to say, on Day 1, I failed to do so. Why? What happened? I succumbed to the one thing that I felt was the most difficult for me to defeat. Anger.

I was so angry with my brother, that I banged the wall with my hands, shouted at the top of my lungs, screamed like a mad man, and the mood when we all sat down for buka puasa was so gloomy. It was like everyone could see a definite aura that brought everyone's mood down. There was no feeling of glory, or triumph, for all of us, had managed to sit down together, with food laden on the table, eating to our hearts content when at some other parts of the world, someone's child is crying, because there are starving to death.

The disappointment was overwhelming. I figured that maybe it would be better if someone could punch me in the face. At least that would make me feel better. I began to think, maybe if I'm not here, I would appreciate my family more. I would be the best daughter, or the best sister in the world to my family, when I am not home. Maybe it's time to go back to Putrajaya. But, but...... When I give another thought about it, my parents are not that well. They are old, and they need someone to watch over them. While I'm here, being at home only once a year (and last year I was only home for 14 days, and did not return for another 11 months, I felt guilty for this) I should make the best of my time, to look after them. Though it's not much, I admit, I do not help them that much, but my presence, makes a huge difference. I realized that.

So, another day, another ramadhan. May the next days to come are filled with even better things. Ramadhan only comes once a year, and who knows, maybe it is our last Ramadhan?

Erni Bidin.
Mersing, Johor.
2 Ramadan.