Monday, May 30, 2016

Ramadan in Focus part 2

Aboo Hurayrah narrated that Allaah’s Messenger said: “By the One in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, the odor of a fasting person’s mouth is more fragrant to Allaah than musk.” Collected by al-Bukhaaree

The Prophet’s statement: “… is more fragrant to Allaah than musk,” means that the one with the bad breath will find it more pleasant than musk with Allaah, because he will receive more reward for it than one who is perfumed with musk from the fragrance of his musk.

Aboo Hurayrah quoted the Messenger of Allaah (r) as saying: “Fasting is for Me and I will personally give reward for it. [The fasting person] put aside his sexual desire, his food and drink for My sake.”

 Allaah alone knows about the fasting, its amount of reward and the degree to which it will be multiplied. This interpretation is supported by the narration: “Every good deed of Adam’s descendents is multiplied ten times up to seven hundred times. Allaah, Most Great and Glorious, said, ‘Except fasting, for it is only for Me and I will reward it.’ ” (Sahih Muslim)

The reason for specifying fasting is because other acts of worship are viewed by people, while fasting is entirely between the person and Allaah, it is done for Him alone and he does it seeking God’s pleasure. This can be found in the statement “Fasting is for Me…” The other reason is that the remaining righteous deeds involve spending wealth or using the body, while fasting involves breaking the soul’s desires, exposing the body to loss, and it contains patience with the pangs of hunger and thirst and abandonment of desires, indicated by his statement, “he gave up his desires for My sake…”
Thus, the statement: “Fasting is for Me and I will reward it,” emphasizes the greatness of the unlimited reward for fasting


 (Notes are extracted from IOU course material: Prophetic reflections on Ramadan)

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