Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Every Muslim should prepare himself to welcome the blessed month of Ramadan by strengthening his relationship with the Quran, busing himself with the spirit of fasting, and recharging his spiritual battery to prepare himself to make the whole blessed month of Ramadan a real occasion of sincere obedience.
In responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Allah Almighty says: “The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong).” (Al-Baqarah 2:185)
Ramadan is an event that occurs in the life of the faithful, as individuals and as an Ummah, once a year. It is intended by Allah to help us to recharge our spiritual batteries and thus prepare us for the great mission of realizing His will on earth.
Therefore, in order to benefit from Ramadan, we may do well to prepare for it by opening our hearts and minds to embrace it. Let me offer a few tips:
1- We should empower ourselves by learning as much as we can about the precise laws as well as the benefits of fasting.
2- We should ensure that we gain true benefits from our fasting, let us make sure to realize the spirit of fasting: this can only be done by abstaining, not only from food, drink, and sex, but also by strictly restraining our minds, hearts as well as our eyes, ears, hands, tongue, and so on.
3- We must embrace the spirit of fasting as stressed in the Hadith: to be charitable and compassionate as much as we can.
4- We should strengthen our relationship with the Qur’an; for Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an.
5- We should engage in dhikr and condition ourselves to make it second nature.
6- Last but not least, we should build up our community through acts of charity and compassion and extending help to those in need as much as we can.
Let us pray that we come out of Ramadan with our faith recharged, gaining strength in our faith and commitment and relationship with Allah.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.