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Here we are again, it is knocking at our doors. The august visitor which comes once in a year. Whenever it comes, it is never in a hurry to leave. He makes sure he spends 29 days with us, it may choose to make it 30 days.
This I think is based on the arrangement between it and its Creator who annually sends it to us. It is just a visitor which every Muslims—I mean practicing Muslims—must accommodate willy-nilly. I don’t have enough bed space in my house is never an excuse. I sleep under bridge is still not a reason to deny it accommodation. Things are too expensive and cost of living has unbearably skyrocketed (you understand what I mean if you are a Nigerian living in Nigeria). Staples and other consumables are exceptionally and unparalleledly high. Yet this is not a good reason to pretend not to hear the knocking of the annual knocker. We must open our doors for this visitor. For he does not knock suddenly, he knocks in advance, it announces its coming before time, so that we do not pretend we are not aware of its coming.
Many Nigerian Muslims (or should I even say most of them?) might want to fall sick, or travel, or become very old instantly just to avoid welcoming and accommodating this noble guest. As these are the genuine reasons why the doors might not be opened for it. Get me right! Not because these Muslims are hypocritically trying to avoid this guest; not because they are bad Muslims, weak Muslims or irresponsible Muslims. But because they envisage the emptiness of their pockets and their hopelessness and haplessness of getting it lined with money—even the lowest denomination. It is this confusion that sprouts this thought in them.
Another thing about this visitor is that it only spares its host temporarily. Put differently, if you are genuinely excused as a traveller, or having health issue, this visitor will still find a way to ensure that it is accommodated in the future time. I am very sorry for not mentioning this visitor’s name. But I know by now you must have had an idea of the visitor I am referring to. It is the Month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was first revealed in its entirety—a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion (Q2: 185).
Ramadan is the visitor which our doors should ordinarily be opened for in advance. But here we are; our hearts are beating fast, not for the fear of the unknown but for the fear of the known (poverty). Hunger in Nigeria has taken a terrible dimension. But why should ubiquitousness of hunger in the land cast fear of Ramadan fasting in our hearts when fasting is, after all, a deliberate abstinence from food and drink from dawn till dusk? The reason is that a Muslim takes a pre-dawn meal in preparation for the whole day abstinence. He also takes an after dusk supper to make up for the whole day’s abstinence. So what is the fate of a Muslim who does not have the wherewithal to provide for these two important meals? It is that fate that casts fear in the hearts of the hungry ones whose hunger seems not to have an expiring date. It is this bad!
However, the poor Muslims, despite the gloomy reality and the grotesque picture I have painted above, should see this Month of Ramadan as a thing of joy which should be happily welcome and embraced. We should remember that Ramadan is the Month which the Qur’an was revealed and as a guidance. It guides to the fact that “There is no creature on earth but that upon Allah is its provision, and He knows its place of dwelling and place of storage. All is in a clear register.” (Q11:6).
Since Ramadan comes with the Qur’an and states what has just been mentioned about every creature being provided for by Allah, it is logical to say, therefore, that Ramadan is a visitor that comes with its provisions. All we need to do to see Ramadan as a blessing which it is, is to fear Allah. Is it not Allah that says it, and so unequivocally, that whoever fears Him “He will make for him a way out. And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah—then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set a measure for all things (Q65: 2-3)
Is it, therefore, logical to say that the fear of Allah and the fear of poverty should not co-exist in the heart of a true believer? Hmmm! I am more comfortable with ‘yes’ than with ‘no’. Though if the answer is truly ‘yes’, we may all be victims of not having the fear of Allah. Yet many scholars have answered ‘yes’. A poet, who must have been influenced by the Qur’anic verse quoted above, once asked: “Why are you afraid of poverty when Allah is the Provider? He has indeed provided for birds and fish in the ocean.
The Qur’an further says: “And whoever fears Allah—He will make for him of his matter ease…and whoever fears Allah—He will remove for him his misdeeds and make great for him his reward (Q65:4-5). It is with this understanding that the poor Nigerian Muslims (and the poor elsewhere) should welcome the Month of Ramadan in this hard time—economically speaking.
And for the well to do Muslims, the rich, the wealthy, the affluent, the moneybags, this is another opportunity for them to show the down trodden favor just as Allah bestows you from His Bounties. This must be mentioned (and so with commendation); there are rich people in Nigeria who spend stupendously in the Month of Ramadan. They spend terrifically such that one will be terrified and think their wealth would suffer exhaustion. But Allah, in His Mercy, replaces for such people what they spend in manifolds. All we can say to this category of people is jazaakumullahu Khaira.
Yet, there are other rich people who have incurable disdain for the masses, the poor, the down trodden, the deprived, the unprivileged, the lowly, the destitute, the impoverished, the penniless, the insolvent, the ruined, the bankrupt, and the proletariats. My sense tells me that because they are the majority of the inhabitants of the earth (not only in Nigeria), they have many qualifiers. Not only in English Language, but also in other languages. The rich who abhor this poor people always argue that they are not the cause of their poverty. The Qur’an (36:47) puts it better, “And when it is said to them, “Spend from that which Allah has provided for you,” those who disbelieve say to those who believe, “Should we feed one whom, if Allah had willed, He would have fed? You are not but in clear error.” Subhanallah! Any Muslim with this kind of thinking risks losing his faith. For this is the mentality of the unbelievers. We ask Allah for guidance. May Allah bless us in this Month of Ramadan and beyond.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
