Of The Month Of Ramazan Just Gone By

By Prof. M. A. Sofi, New Age Islam 24 April 2023 The Good Deed Being Performed Voluntarily Ought To Fall Within The Ambit Of Duties Towards Fellow Beings (As Part Of Haqooq-Ul-Ibad) And Has To Be Distinguished From The Mandatory Ones Involving Duties And Rights Towards Allah (Haqooq U Allah) Which Are A Binding On The Faithful Like Five Times Prayers, Haj Or Zakat Etc. ----- With the holy month of Ramazan of 2023 just gone by, it’s intended to share certain personal experiences based on how people look at and conduct their lives while following the obligation of fasting and prayers during Ramadhan. The need for sharing my thoughts is motivated by the vice-like grip of the Pesh Imams, aka priests, on the masses and how almost everything being uttered by them finds instant traction with those in attendance in the mosques. These are my observations as much as a casual observer of things would notice them, and so no originality of the contents is claimed of what follows in the lines below, other than to suggest what could possibly be a way out, in my limited understanding, to impart a semblance of sanity to the proceedings. We are told that apart from fasting, the act of virtue like prayers or charity in the shape of zakat being performed during Ramadhan is supposed to fetch "seventy times" as much reward in the hereafter as it would otherwise if performed outside the month of Ramadhan. That is the kind of stuff that has been fed to Muslims all over the world who have been made to accept that as an inviolable act of faith. To put into perspective the logic of the "70- times" divine windfall, it’s important to note that the idea of the reward being promised to the faithful in return for good deeds being performed within the holy month is to be understood in the sense of the unlimited bounty and kindness that God has promised to shower upon those among the faithful who are sincere while performing such good deeds, regardless of whether such deeds are performed during or outside the month of Ramadhan. A scholar friend who has a deep insight into Quran and Ahadees endorses that point of view. In an effort to corroborate this viewpoint, let us to ponder the logic of the 70- times benefit as decreed in various interpretations of the divine text. To begin, this over-emphasised insistence on doling out charity as part of zakat during Ramadhan arises from a ubiquitous disposition to quantify reward and punishment as one would normally do with material goods, gains and losses. Of the many less desirable consequences of such an approach towards the issue is this unwholesome spectacle of most of the Muslims giving away almost the entire amount due to them as zakat necessarily during the holy month of Ramadhan, thus leaving little or no money and other resources with them to be paid to the poor and the needy who may need that during the rest of the year. As a consequence, a whole lot of the destitute and of the sick and those in heavy debt among them would be left high and dry for want of timely assistance by those who have the resources and the wherewithal but who had chosen to give that away exclusively during Ramadhan. As opposed to the spirit of these injunctions which is primarily to engender virtue and piety in the believers, such unreasonable allegiance to the letter involving the "material arithmetic" of reward and punishment would defeat the very purpose of zakat which combines self-sacrifice with compassion and fellow feeling. To ensure the institution of zakat being used to good effect, this diehard allegiance to the obsession of earning "good grades" on individual actions has to give way to rational distribution of wealth and other resources as part of zakat’s being ensured to be spread over the entire year if it is to be hoped that those beset with hunger, need and poverty do not remain deprived as a result an exclusive emphasis on the quantification of returns. In the same vein, the sheer size of congregation of the 'faithful' thronging the mosques and other places of worship for prayers at least five times a day during Ramadhan and then thinning out and subsequently staying out during the rest of the year is again a result of the same thinking involving the factor of 70 being forced into the equation! A plausible, commonsensical interpretation to tease out a sense of the 70-multiplier thing would be to postulate that the “70-multiplier offer’ is not automatic, unless the good deed intended to fetch seventy times the promised reward is part of the set of exhortations that are not mandatory from the Islamic jurisprudential point of view but are undertaken of one's own volition, on voluntary basis that is. Further, the good deed being performed voluntarily ought to fall within the ambit of duties towards fellow beings (as part of Haqooq-ul-Ibad) and has to be distinguished from the mandatory ones involving duties and rights towards Allah (Haqooq u Allah) which are a binding on the faithful like five times prayers, Haj or zakat etc. In short, the point is that the scale and magnitude of the reward in lieu of the latter deeds (based on Haqooq-ul-Ibad) shall remain the same irrespective of the time of the year, whereas such epistemic virtues as truthfulness, kindness and good behaviour towards fellow beings or even a kindly word to a beggar as acts of charity are the good deeds (as part of Haqooq-ul-Ibad) being non-obligatory would reasonably fetch seventy times the promised reward if these acts were performed during the month of Ramadhan. Yet another side of the picture and involving such good deeds as mentioned above being exhorted to be practiced to attain to spirituality of the individual, the buck is seen to stop right at the door of the mosque. This is so because it's rarely the case that the sheer majority of those seeking proximity to the Almighty through the rigorous regime of prayer and good deeds as prescribed for the holy month are seen to translate into piety, morality and good behaviour of the individual towards fellow beings. It's a sad reflection of the moral depravity of the Muslim community that the rigorous discipline exhorted to be inculcated towards self-purification and edification of the soul as ordained as divine injunctions happen to make no difference in terms of such habits as dishonesty, corrupt practices and bad manners among the practicing Muslims which are seen to witness no worthwhile decline even during the holy month of Ramadhan, other than in the rarest of rare cases. That should serve to underscore the redundancy of the "70-times-reward" inanity being attached to an obligatory act of virtue if performed necessarily during the month of Ramadhan. Of a piece with what has been said above is this display of raucous, haranguing sermons by those occupying the pulpits of mosques especially in the subcontinent which provide a telling example of how a sense of mortal fear of God as a supreme dispenser of punishment is instilled in the minds of the people regarding the consequences of foregoing one's religious obligations. On the contrary, the need for highlighting the mercy and compassion of God towards those who may unintentionally err or deviate from the path of righteousness seems to be completely lost on these demagogues whose shrill rhetoric on a myriad inanities being passed for as being central to the Islamic faith gets carried as the main take away from their outpourings. Of course, it’s reasonable to understand and infer that those who are insincere and in grave error as a result of their arrogance, rebelliousness and a wilful denial of the word of God shall not be entitled to His forgiveness and mercy. ---- Prof. M. A. Sofi is currently NBHM Visiting Professor at JK Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Srinagar He previously taught at AMU, Aligarh, Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar and University of Kashmir, Srinagar Did Master’s from AMU, Aligarh (1978) and Ph. D Mathematics at IIT Kanpur(1982) Presently living in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/ramadhan-ramazan-ramadan/d/129624 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism