Imagine if you don’t eat and drink from 5.40am until 7.15pm. It is about 13.5 hours!

Do you know that all Muslims around the world are fasting this month? This year, the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan started on September 1, 2008.

Ramadan, a month of fasting, characterizes one of the five pillars of Islam. The Five Pillars of Islam constitute the foundations in a Muslim’s life: ‘Shahadah’ (the declaration of faith), ‘Salah’ (prayer), ‘Zakah’ (required expenditure), ‘Siyam’ (fasting) and ‘Hajj’ (pilgrimage to Mecca).

For over a billion Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a sacred time of the year. Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the holy Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet Mohammad. During Ramadan, Muslims fast everyday from dawn to dusk. It is a time for inner reflection, restraint, munificence, amity and devotion to God. The sighting of the new moon at the end of Ramadan heralds the celebration of Eidul-Fitr, a festival signifying the breaking of the fast. Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar (Al-Hijrah), is an annual spiritual occasion that encompasses the entire Muslim world in one religious season. Al-Hijrah, the Islamic calendar, is based on the lunar system, which has twelve months in the year.

The Ramadan fast is a divine sanction that is required of all able-bodied Muslims who are free from undeniable excuses: i.e. he or she must be an adult Muslim, sane, healthy, and not travelling. If a person fulfils these prerequisites, fasting becomes mandatory.

By fasting, a devoted Muslim works to control or change his or her habits that are acquired in everyday life. It trains the body and soul, rekindles life and encourages a spirit of sharing and giving.

Fasting strengthens family ties - together they congregate twice a day. They join once for ‘sahuur’, a light meal eaten just before dawn, and once for ‘iftar’, a breaking of the fast at sunset. In fasting, friendship is also strengthened, for Ramadan is known as the month of invitations and visits. Friends, family members and neighbors extend invitations to each other to come to their homes for ‘iftar’.

While fasting, the heart, the soul, and the body are conditioned with the virtues of patience, tenacity, and resolution. Patience is the summit of self-mastery, discipline, obedience and spiritual dexterity. Ramadan helps a serious believer remold, reshape, reform, and renew his physical and spiritual temperament and behavior.

Centuries ago, fasting was a symbol of sorrow, mourning, penitence for sins, a reminder of disasters as well as self-degradation in Judaism and Christianity. Islam modified this negative idea of fasting, into an enlightened concept of victory over the forces of evil. The month of fasting in Islam is a month of worship that Muslims hail each year with vigor, enthusiasm and pleasure; they are saddened only when the month concludes.

Ramadan offers a religious and spiritual opportunity for peace, consideration and acceptance for all mankind, as with Christmas, Thanksgiving and Yom Kippur.

Life is so beautiful!

Donate to the homeless people. Click Here.

Newbie, short cut all the unnecessary struggles. I recommend Atomic Blogging