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using a normal voice, commanding) I need that kitchen done so I can get dinner started.
Kid: (Still playing video games, answering) I coming right now, I just had to save on this level.
I go back to the kitchen and wait. 10 seconds later no one has entered the kitchen yet.
Me: (Yelling from the kitchen) If you don’t get in here to clean this kitchen now, I’ll turn the electricity off and you won’t have video games.
Kid: (Running into the kitchen) Dad, it’s been less than a minute, I’m here, what do you need me to do?
Me: (My patience coming back a notch, using a normal voice) Put the clean dishes away; wash, dry, and put away the dirty ones that are in the sink, while I cut these vegetables.
Kid: (While we are working) By the way Dad, the oven, stove, and lights are electric, so if you turned off the electricity, you would be defeating your purpose by punishing me, because you would not be able to prepare dinner and cook.
Me: (Patience back again, laughing at the comment, because it’s true) Thanks for helping, I appreciate it!
Patience can be like a rollercoaster during times when I’m fasting. The solution is to seek God’s forgiveness and implore Him. God helps me to deal with losing my patience by using appreciation, and counting the blessings that I have. Being impatient is a form of objecting to something not going the way I want it to. So, by being appreciative of things, it helps me submit, not object, to God’s will and be patient in the moment.
Fasting is designed to attain salvation. [2:183] O you who believe, fasting is decreed for you, as it was decreed for those before you, that you may attain salvation.
God helps me when I am fasting to recognize things about myself that I need to correct to be righteous that I may attain salvation.
By God’s grace, I’m able to discipline my physical body through trying times, perhaps as a reminder that the physical world is only a temporary illusion, and we should focus on the Hereafter. He guides me to recognize that I have to work on being patient through appreciation. He inspires me not to become obsessed with worldly items, to remember to say, “Bismillah” (in the name of God), before all daily tasks, to make a habit of telling the truth with all my actions, and to use my hearing, eyesight, and brains to not be fooled by lies from Satan. With God’s help I’m able to keep Him in constant remembrance with all my daily tasks.
May God help all of us to use this fasting period to work towards salvation, pass our tests with His help, and seek forgiveness for the tests we fail.
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This Ramadan encompasses some of the longest and hottest days of the year for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. This is especially true for those here in the American Southwest where May and June temperatures can be quite brutal. For me this presents the dilemma of the best way to explain to others how it is that God in His infinite grace and mercy, which we know from Quran and our experience to be an absolute reality, commands us to fast from the earliest light of dawn to sunset (2:187). That puts the fast during the hottest part of the day making it the most difficult time to fast, especially from liquids.
Probably most submitters have tried to explain how God helps during the fast to someone who has not experienced it, and to reassure them that if fasting is too difficult God gives alternatives (2:184). Many of us may also have had times when our own companions question God’s mercy in this practice in spite of our having experienced God’s help with it!
How can we convince non-submitters, our companions and perhaps sometimes even our rebellious or lazy selves?
Looking at things from the perspective of another set of verses may help. God tells us: [94:5-8] With pain there is gain. Indeed, with pain there is gain. Whenever possible you shall strive. Seeking only your Lord.
Wait, this almost sounds like God wants us to suffer. May He protect us from being tricked in this by Satan as he has many people. Many Muslims believe the most miserable is the most righteous. The traditional Christian interpretation of some Biblical verses, especially in 1 Peter 4, is that suffering is for the glory of God. That concept has become an important part of much Christian philosophy. Interestingly when I read 1 Peter 4:12-13 I get quite a different meaning. Here are the verses from the King James Version of the Bible: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
To me these Biblical verses have nothing at all to do with God but are all about idolizing Jesus. The Quranic principle is very, very different. The pain God speaks of in 94:5-8 is not at all the same. First, it is not suffering at all. Instead it might be compared to the pain of a strenuous workout, which while it may not be comfortable stresses the muscles to help them grow. And as the muscles grow and strengthen, so does the underlying skeleton. Thus, the pain actually helps the body grow. It is not the pain that God wants for us, but the growth.
The spiritual workout of fasting helps us grow a different kind of body, that of our souls. This workout truly is striving, seeking only God. God willing it will help us grow enough to be able to enjoy His physical presence in the hereafter.
Peace and may God bless our Ramadan.