It is about 3 in the afternoon and we are returning home from the office. Due to Ramadan, we are all returning home early. Weather is hot and thirst of fasting has made it appear even more. No one is talking in the van; some are feeling sleepy while others are trying to control their temper. Till I reached home, I saw 3 scenes in which two men fought or were about to fight with each other. When I knocked at the door, my brother opened the door with some care and attention. He was also expecting any kind of short-tempered behavior from me and thus was a bit careful as not to annoy me. He quickly opened the door and got on a side as if asking me to advance to my room without saying anything to him.
Other day, my aunt was saying to his sons to go shops after Iftaar as at that times shopkeepers are found to be in good temper or mood, otherwise, in day time, they are found to be very agile and ready to fight.
This general perception of Ramadan and fasting is found, more or less, everywhere. Excluding a small minority, when people fast, they develop a very sensitive and fragile thinking in their minds about their condition; both physical and emotional. They think that with fast they become short-tempered and thus people around them needs to be careful so as not to annoy them. That’s why we witness such expressions as, “Shhh! be careful boys, your father is coming!” or “Let’s silently do our work, boss too often gets angry this month”.
This is such a helpless situation that the good image and reputation of this blessed month is ruined and we give a negative message to the followers of others religions. They think that Muslims fast but then they get absolutely disturbed both mentally and physically.
As it is mentioned in Quran, Allah is not in need of our fast or does not like to keep us thirsty and hungry. Rather Allah wants to check as if how much we are pious and control our tempers and emotions. If we just remain thirsty and angry and then don’t go through any kind of mental or spiritual cleanliness and alteration, we are like a cow or a sheep that has been tied and forgotten at the corner of the house and has not been provided with any water or food. Even those animals are comparatively better than us that they remain silent and calm for about a day or more when left in such circumstances.
Exact opposite of the above picture can be viewed as the most ideal situation for the believer who keeps fast with all the understanding and good intention.
I have also witnessed a lot many people who never let the fast to have any effect on their routine activeness or to their mental calmness. They perform all their duties just like a normal day and appear to be more humble and polite in these blessed days.
This month has come to benefit us both physically and spiritually and if we cannot get benefitted from it, at least we should not get harmed by it as well.
Even before the month of Ramadan starts, it needs to be well-understood by everyone that one might feel a bit difference in his physical alertness and emotional calmness so he needs to be very careful so as to exhibit polite and well-mannered behaviors.
In this way, one would be able to achieve one of the aims of this worship and it is to bring perfection in your manners and learn how to deal the people in the best possible manner. When you will interact with the people keeping in your mind this philosophy, you would definitely experience the perfection of your good behavior.
It is said that one cannot realize the difficulties unless he himself goes through it. If you make a person read a number of books about the different difficulties of life and he feels himself being in stress while reading the books but he will never realize the reality of difficulties until and unless he himself doesn’t pass through the same situation. In our daily lives, we listen and read about the difficulties of poor and importance of helping them. In books we read about it, in newspapers we read articles in this regard, in television, we watch people suffering with poverty and in mosques, Imam Sahib repeatedly reminds us to help our poor brothers but soon we forget all these and get lost in our comfortable life. When we have plenty to eat and have a joyful routine from morning till evening, we hardly get a time of reflection to think about others.
A man was a bit disturbed with the behavior of his three sons on the dining table. On every meal, each one of them demanded a separate thing and they never liked the food served. They were also not satisfied with even two varieties of dishes and when one wanted kitchen, other demanded the burger and the third one pizza and satisfying them had become an asking challenge. Then father decided that twice in a week, they would eat only the bread with water in dinner. When children had nothing to eat than the mere bread and water, they realized that how much they were ungrateful. Then the food that they normally disliked appeared to them very tasty.
In the same way, when we remain thirsty and hungry for a whole day, we realize how much difficult it would be for those who find nothing to eat and remain hungry for a day or more. This fills our heart with emotions and motivates us to help the poor in future.
A person narrates his story that the tea in afternoon never attracted him too much especially when it was not accompanied by some pastry or cake. Then he got a job in which he had to work non-stop from midday till late in evening. At about 5, they were provided with a cup of tea in the break. This cup of tea gave him such a pleasure that he forgot the tea that he used to drink at home with other edibles.
After experiencing the thirst and hunger for a whole month, we not only change our views about the sufferings of others, we also realize the true worth of those things that were bestowed upon us but we had not fully realized their importance.
This is one of the few lessons that this blessed month offers to us!