"Ramadan is the month in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a guide to mankind." (Al-Qur'an, 2:185)
With these short words God introduced fasting during the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the 9th month of the Lunar Calendar. Like other months of the lunar calendar this month was also known to pre-Islamic Arabs with the same name. There was nothing unusual about this month. Same days and same nights, sometime it was hot and sometime it was cool, because the months of the lunar calendar rotate and they are not fixed in hot or cold season as the months of the solar calendar are. However, in the year 610 (or 611) of the Common Era at one night of this month something new happened. What happened was something unusual, extraordinary. The eternal Word of God was communicated from heaven to the earth during this month. Ever since that moment Ramadan stands out as a unique month for Muslims. It was during Ramadan that Muhammad, a noble Arab, about forty years old was all by himself in prayer and devotion inside the cave of Hira in a mountain near Makkah. The archangel Gabriel visited him and told him that God had chosen him as His Prophet. The angel gave Prophet Muhammad the first words of revelation:
Read! In the name of thy Lord who created,Created man from a clot. Read! For thy Lord is most Gracious, Who taught man the use of the pen and taught man what He knew not (96:1-5)
What followed after this for 23 years was Prophet Muhammad's work as a prophet of God. The Qur'an continued to be revealed to the Prophet piecemeal, received at different occasions of his life and continued giving directions for him and his followers.
In many religions of the world there is something called "auspicious time". That time is associated either with harvest or spring season, birth of a hero, saint or savior or a historical or trans-historical event that is important to that particular religious tradition. Ramadan, for the Muslim community, is an auspicious time. It is a time that makes all time valuable.
0 comments:
Post a Comment