بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ
In the process of establishing the Israelites as the upholders of the
true religion Allah
gave them numerous blessings. For
example He sent down from the sky their sustenance. Everything that they would have needed came
from Allah. So they didn’t have to labour for their
wants.
Even though they received so many blessings from Allah
they found it difficult to worship Him at least once for the day. Even when the Torah was revealed they
complained to Moses (as). They said its
either they pray or read from the revealed Book; even though they didn’t have
to do anything,
The same was in the case of Jesus (as).
He invited his people (the Israelites) to the way of Allah
and they placed a condition of firstly receiving a table of food from the sky
in return for their cooperation.
Allah
says about Prophet Muhammad (pboh);
‘Never think that the dua of the Prophet (pboh) is like that of an ordinary man’.
If he made dua to Allah
it would have been granted.
Even then when
the Quraish issued the boycott
against the early Muslims they were forced, for more than a year, to live in a
valley. The conditions at that time were
so severe that some of the believers ate stones in order to survive. Even then they never made conditions with the
Messenger of Allah (pboh). And
Prophet (pboh) never prayed to Allah
for food to fall from the sky for him and his people.
Why? He wanted to show and
demonstrate that if Allah
loves you He will take care of you.
Prophet (pboh) wanted to establish the understanding that we
all belong to Allah
and He can allow/disallow what He wants.
Thus Prophet (pboh) and his blessed Companions never made
conditions and their sacrifice is preserved for us to take pattern from. And to go a step further the same obedience
and reliance on Allah
is seen in the fast that we are commanded to keep.
Fasting is one of the Divine gifts from Allah
to His servants. Fasting helps to
establish this unconditional obedience to our Creator. We are denying our baser selves the material
desires out of love for Allah. And we all try to earn the maximum benefits
associated with this great month so we abstain from vain talk and despicable
attitude.
The Israelites wanted to see Allah
so Moses (as) took 72 of their priests’ up the mountain and Allah
caused them to die and revived them and still they faith was not
developed. The Muslims on the other hand
obeyed; once a command was sent down.
They never issued any pre-requisites in exchange for their obedience.
May Allah make this
Ramadhan peaceful and tranquil for all the believers’. May He make the trials easy and bearable for
us and may He remove most of it in this most special month. Let us benefit from it, and whatever you do,
do it solely for the sake of Allah.
