“O you who believe, fasting is decreed for you, as it was decreed for those before you, that you may attain salvation.” Al Quran- [2:183]
Earlier posts on Ramzan Sharif have prompted me to write a few lines that may not be contested by readers but I think in all fairness we need to be a little truthful particularly in the month when we need to take a closer look at our conduct. Each year, Ramzan generates much of the usual piety and loud proclamations about how the Satan is chained in this month and the doors of repentance are let open upon the believers. We have grown up internalizing these views and therefore a majority of Muslim population across the globe fasts and prays for Divine mercy.
Essentially this month is a time of cleansing one’s soul as well as the body. However, every Ramzan witnesses some distasteful activities by the believers that come hand in hand with the rituals of the holy month.
First, the consumerism: forget about the cleansing of the system – there is an overemphasis on food when it should be the last item on our priorities. There are Iftaars galore and rich fatty foods are added to the diet like never before. A lavish Iftaar (across the board) is followed by a sumptuous dinner. There are Iftar packages everywhere from small stalls to five star hotels. And, the whole purpose of the exercise is somewhat undermined by the food-fest[s] indulged in by all and sundry.
A few words on the despicable behaviour of the profiteers and hoarders nowadays defined as the ultimate magic bullet – the market. This year the prices of basic staple diet – atta reached the skies when a sack of wheat flour was sold at Rs 320-340 much higher than the “fixed” prices. Not content with this, there was an average increase of 10-11 per cent in all the food items. Now if this is the official statistic, then the actual figure is bound to be higher. I have no estimate but judging by stories in the media it was much much higher.
Imagine the poor of Pakistan who constitute 24-34 per cent of the total figure (depends on the measure and source one adopts). They have had a tough time this Ramzan. And, then all this piety and repentance? The Federal Bureau of Statistics has reported an increase of 12.61% increase was seen in the “ratio of dearness for the low income group” during this time in comparison to the last year.
I can even imagine that those benefiting from the hikes would give massive amounts of charity, offer all the prayers (perhaps more through the nawaafil) and think that they would wash away their crimes and misdemeanours. Indeed the ultimate arbiter and decision maker of their deeds is the Almighty but one cannot help notice the irony of this situation.
The spirit of Ramzan also stresses the redistributive aspect of Islamic practices. The giving of Zakat at the end of the month is also mandatory for Muslims. In the past a hash was made of the Zakat system put into place by the Zia regime where all these funds were diverted and used for political and ‘strategic’ gains. This trend has been somehwhat arrested but pilferage continues. And, I will not say more on the new status symbol of the elites – an Umra towards the end of the holy month – where hundreds and thousands of rupees are spent while a majority of poor put up the posters of Kaaba on their cracking walls.
Road rage is also another trend during the month and many a people think that fasting has to do with starvation – our speech and thoughts need to fast as well. Do they? Rumi rightly said:
Wash your hands and your mouth, neither eat nor speak; seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones.
There is much too much emphasis on the ritual and the spirit of our great religion is the real casualty of the way we practice religion in the land of the pure. About time someone explained the words Taqwa and Tazkia-e Nafs in their entirety. I end with these words.
There is more to be said here but may God forgive me for this rant. Perhaps I am also a victim of that impatience that I am supposed to contain.
Just found out that the Empire State Building is going to be lit as green on Friday to celebrate Eid and this is going to be an ongoing tradition from now on.
Bazigha means shining. (not the movie)
It has been used in the Holy Quran in the seventh juz. Narrating the story of prophet Ibrahim ..When he saw the sun shining and the moon shining he though that they could be his rabb but they both set and he realised that his rabb is the One who created them
MQ and Alvi Saheb: thanks for most incisive comments - I am still smiling at Alvi Saheb’s rag-i-zaraafat (or is it hiss-i-zaraafat)
Tina-ji, thanks for adding substance to this discussion. A MQ stated that we have well developed cartels in operation and they very much manipulate the so called ‘market’!
Bazigha has rightly mentioned the shortcuts that we adopt (I also did that when I was younger by enumerating the sawaabs etc - machinations of a clergy that has no place in my religion to begin with)..
It is through the years that I have realised that in self-knowlegde and lies the essence of Divine reality and grace.
Sister Tina: It is not that his flock is born-sinner and one confession will wash all the sins away or how many rosaries must be said or candles must be burned following each confession. Moulvi Sahab has developed a precise mathematical formula of sin-washing. You ought to try it some time.
Bazigha, ( kindly give us some explan of your name )
Yes , but all our extra prayers and Nawafils are already our
first step on sirat-e- mustaqim, I think so !!
How pricise your are on Shaitan, yes , he is in full speed, he
wakes up specially during Ramdan, remember he has been
given time limit. !!!!
So people who believe in the short cut and “reducing the cost” of sinning against others, I have to wonder…if they believe this do they not believe that God can’t see their true intentions in their hearts? Who do they think they’re kidding?
Allah, apparently.
All the extra prayers and nawafil that we do are a short cut to sawab and washing our sins.The other path (sirat e mustaqim) is too hard .
The way I see it shaitan is alive and well,as a matter of fact thriving in the month of ramadan
There are two strands in this discussion. One is religious (or ritualistic) and the other is economic. On the ritualistic, one of Majeed Lahori’s couplet comes to mind:
Din ko chaaloo lunch bhi, cigarette bhi, laikan shaam ko
Da’wat-i-iftar maiN jaanay ka mausam aa gaya
On the economic side, in a free market economy, it is all a question of supply and demand. No amount of religious exhortations, or administrative measures can control the prices of consumer goods. However, in Pakistan we have monopolies or mafias such as sugar and cement and now wheat, which control the supply of goods in the market and therefore the prices. The government looks the other way because its own people are involved in these monopolies.