A friendly philosopher opened my heart to the real humanitarian aspect of Ramadan, rendering the special practical measures to feel the reward from God, when I was spending my Holy Month at the International Islamic University Malaysia. There are three important prayers dedicated equally to each ten days, which are successively taken as the days of Mercy, Repentance and Relief from the Hell. These prayers are loudly recited by the Imam of the mosques and all others usually repeat expecting the benevolence.
I was astonished by hearing about the wonderful yardsticks to measure the acceptance of prayers each day in life and till that I had never thought of practically testing the acceptance of religious rituals from this world. The friendly philosopher explained how one can feel acceptance of first ten days' prayer, which beseech the utmost mercy of God, reminding that God always helps the needy through the assisting hands of fellow beings.
To convince me, the philosopher quoted from Qur'an, ‘Be merciful to those on the earth, then God will shower mercy on you’. So it is very important to recheck whether he or she opened their eye of mercy towards the needy. If one believer is not extending any help to others, even after ten days of continuous prayers prayers, the prayer for the mercy of God is not accepted.
Next prayer is for seeking repentance from all sins. It is clear that God will forgive everything, except what one owes to human beings. When a fasting person pardons mistakes of others, it is a good sign of the acceptance of his prayers. So it is necessary to forgive to each one who committed faults to us. The last ten days prayers are for getting relieved from the fire of hell and entering in to heaven. This prayer is in present tense and expect to get free from the hell, in which one has already fallen.
My doubt about the fire of hell before death and consecutive ten days of prayers to free from the Fire was clearly answered with holy words ‘beware of envy, because verily envy eats away the good deeds like fire eats away wood’ and asked to check the heart to feel the intensity of heat felt by the turmoil in life. Along with the prayer it is important to strive to get away from envy and animosity and that keeps hell out of the heart and soul.
Now once again along with Ramadan, the loudly special prayers come. I believe it is important to raise these practical lessons of better humanitarian sense.
(Dr Abbas Panakkal is a research fellow at Griffith University, Australia)
