My fellow brothers in Islam, let us enhance our taqwa towards Allah by following all His commandments and abstaining from all that He has forbidden. We have just left the month of Ramadan. A month filled with Allah’s blessings. A month that has trained us to prepare for the coming 11 months. A month that contains the one night which has the benefits of 1000 months. However, what is the effect of Ramadan on us ? Has our deeds truly left an effect during that month ? Has the fast truly train and discipline us ? Or has the last month on left us with the effects of hunger and thirst. For those who have performed their ibadah in full conviction, verily they have gained, as said by Rasulullah saw:
For whosoever has fasted during the month of Ramadan with full conviction, all his past sins will be forgiven.”
Perhaps the last Ramadan has left a lasting effect in some of us such that it has made us sad when we bid farewell to the month and we hoped that we would meet the month again next year. This is because we do not know whether we would meet the month again in future. Dear brothers, now it is time for the month of Syawal. A month of joy and a month of freedom. It is a month of the many blessed months. While we enjoy during this month of Syawal, we should not be unmindful in celebrating the joyous occasion of the Eid. We should not consider that Ramadan is the only month for us to perform ibadah. If in Ramadan we had controlled our tongues from talking or conversing inappropriately, we should continue to do so for the rest of our lives. If in Ramadan we had controlled our eyes from looking at things most despicable, it does not mean that after Ramadan, we could return to our old ways.
Perhaps there are among us who feel that there were many shortcomings done in the last Ramadan. Perhaps the ibadah were not performed perfectly and perhaps missed the opportunity to get the benefits of the 1000 months. Verily Allah SWT offers us the opportunity to His servants. It is up to us to seize the opportunity. In this month, there are many acts which can be performed to complement and continue from our acts in the past month. The complementary Ibadah referred to is the six days fast. It is fasting for six days in the month of Syawal. Whether it is performed continuously or alternately, as long as it is performed in Ramadan, it will be accepted. The fast of 6 days in Syawal has many benefits. Among them, as reported in a hadith which says:
He who fasts in the month of Ramadan followed by 6 days in Syawal, it is as if he has fasted for 1 year."
It means that if you complete the fast of 1 month of Ramadan and continue with 6 days of fasting in Syawal, you will be rewarded with the rewards of someone who has fast for 1 full year. If we analyse that hadith, we can conclude that it corresponds to Allah’s commands in Suratul Al An’am verse 160 which means:
"He that does good will have ten times as much to his credit. He that does evil shall only be recompensed according to His evil. No wrong shall be done unto any of them.”
From this verse, we can see that the 30 days of fasting that we have endured in Ramadan equates to 10 months of fasting! And the 6 days of fasting in Syawal would equate to 2 months. Thus, we will complete 12 months of fasting, which would equate to fasting for 1 whole year! This is explained in another hadith that says:
“Allah will reward every good act ten times over. And so 1 month of good deeds will show the equivalent of 10 months of rewards. And 6 days after Eidl Fitri completes the 1 year.”
Dear brothers, this is the benefit Allah has offered to us for to reap. For those who may have missed the benefits from the previous months, this is an opportunity which you should not miss. The 6 days of fasting in Syawal is like a Rawatib prayer that completes any incomplete prayer. And surely in the course of our fasting in Ramadan there must have been numerous mistakes that we have made. By fasting 6 days in Syawal, it creates an opportunity for us to atone for those mistakes in our fasting.
Let us increase our ibadah in this significant month in Islam. And may our good deeds be rewarded and accepted by Allah s.w.t.
No comments:
Post a Comment